


The Bad Touch

by axolotlNerd, SirChinnigan



Series: Demonic Dealings [1]
Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Angst, Cooking, Demon Deals, Demon!Dan, F/M, Fluff, Miscommunication, Nudity, Slow Build, Succubi & Incubi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:56:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8028646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axolotlNerd/pseuds/axolotlNerd, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirChinnigan/pseuds/SirChinnigan
Summary: A recipe.Some words.A name.What could go wrong?





	1. Like the lost catacombs of Egypt

It was in the attic of a great-great grandmother’s cousin’s, sister’s, mother's house.

The house had been in the family for apparently generations, but no one had bothered to go out to the old property, to the point that it was barely remembered that anyone owned it until they died. Bogged down in a marsh in the middle of nowhere, nothing out there but crocodiles and mosquitoes and a chilling unease of eyes in the dark wood.

It was said the original owner’s grandmother was a witch and her father the devil himself. That she had escaped into the flames of salem laughing, that all who entered the swamps never came out alive.  
It was cursed land, or so they said, so they said when they passed the property deed, hand to hand down daughters line, things happened when it tried be handed over to a man and so in a daughters name it always stayed. 

Hand to hand to your hand.

Your curious hand that had always wanted an adventure.

It was sitting in a circle of rust red.  
Dry, yet glossy, in a room covered in dust, yet it was as clean as a dinner plate at a five star restaurant.  
Not a footprint in or out of the muggy room beyond your own, not even bugs flew in to the room that stayed dry despite the thick oppressive heat outdoors.

It was a book.

Just a book.

A book not worn, a book untouched by the damage of nature, for all that the windows were open and the air humid, a book with pages as crisp as the day they were printed.

A recipe.

Some words.

A name.

Of course nothing is ever easy, nothing ever comes without work, without effort.

A book that old wasn’t exactly written in modern English and a recipe that old wouldn’t have ingredients you could grab at the nearest grocers.

(What on earth was spinage? Was loaf sugar the same as regular white? Strain through a diaper napkin? Did that mean a diaper? Or a napkin?)

It was obviously just a joke, something the locals were doing to have a go at her. 

New girl in a small town, needing to knock this city slicker down a peg. After all, who did she think she was, someone who thought that because they were connected to the village legend they could walk in here and think they were a part of a town that had not seen her family’s blood pass through in generations, if they’d ever lived here at all.

It wasn’t like your pegs were all that high to begin with, but it did certainly shake what little confidence you had left.

Still… Lemon Tarts sounded nice.

A recipe remade to the modern era…

Your curiosity was piqued by the words on the page, old cryptic script and you loved a puzzle. The internet made quick work of words that a lifetime of study would normally require. She didn’t even need to know how to pronounce what she was saying, google translate would tell her how to say—

Some silly meaningless words…

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, so a Weary Pasture would, were it not a Meadow, called retain that dear perfection?

You had to draw your hearts desire to you, and what does one desire after they’ve left everything they’ve known behind to live alone in a swamp?

A name spoken…

The floor creaked, the shutters rattled, no wind blew but her ears howled with something.

And yet.

 

Nothing.

 

Happened.

Sighing, what did you expect truly? A magical spell to another world? An enchanted dragon to wake from slumber and grant a wish in exchange for some tarts?

Always a dreamer no matter how many times reality reminded you that’s not how the world worked.

Needing to get to the only hotel in the next town over before it got too dark you dusted yourself off. More work than this silly fooling around needed to be done before the end of the month. The property value had to be assessed, antiques collected and priced, a hazardous building that might have to be torn down, remodelled, rebuilt better. A bunch of work you didn’t know if you had the money for but at least a few wasted days on this side project wasn’t a total loss.

If you owned anything it was a lot of time.

Stepping out the door you paused, tipping your head to the side as you thought you heard movement upstairs. Rolled eyes and a slam of the door without even bothering with a lock.

Such idle dreams.


	2. I'm Mister Coffee

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited December 2017

He was sitting on the hood of my car when I awoke in the morning and finally got out of my motel room giving me a start that no coffee would ever be able to hold a candle to. 

Some clearly homeless guy, an old looking leather jacket on, dingy white shirt under it, black pants with holes in the knees (were those leather too?) and his toes were wiggling as he was wearing no socks or shoes.  
He looked nervous, on edge, jumpy…

Great he was probably on drugs.

Really his whole body was vibrating, from the top of his fluffy curly hair down to the fingers tapping at his knees, to his wiggling feet listening to some unseen rhythm waiting for something.

I really hoped it wasn’t for me

“A Blessed Morning to ye Mmmm…aaadam?” He looked at me seeming just as confused at my appearance as I was of his. I didn’t understand where he would be confused, I wasn’t exactly the androgynous type and while occasionally I would have a sliding scale of how I felt about my gender I tended to lean towards female and had always been seen as one. I wasn’t exactly trying to pass as anything else just wearing jeans and a t-shirt, a jacket overtop.  
It wasn’t a tight t-shirt but I wasn’t really shaped in any way that would make someone think I were a man, and yet his eyes weren’t on my chest, he seemed to be looking at my legs with a delighted grin on his face. 

“Are you wearing underthings or is this the dress for ladies of the day? I delight in either.”

What?

“Buddy get the fuck off my car.” I said being a bit more snappish than normal but this guy was super giving me some heebies.

“Ah yes your… Thing. I knew it was yours, I know they move on their own, it’s not very talkative is it? Is it asleep? By the way I LOVED the tarts last night, they were… I cannot even describe them, sweetness never tasted, a tartness of the most succulent of lemons, I couldn’t stop eating them, even after, I must confess to my gluttony, getting sick at least twice. Now I feel very peculiar and full of more energy than I know what to do with so whatever day or night of sinful delights you had planned I am more than energized and ready to perform with your dark ritua—“

I had been mesmerized by how he spoke, partially the eloquent musical tone of it, and partially because of the sheer volume of pure nonsensical bullshit streaming from his mouth.  
But I had a lot of shit to do today and dealing with someone who was high as balls wasn’t one of them.

“I said get the fuck of my car dude.” I finally barked out interrupting him trying to sound a lot tougher and meaner than I was.

“Ah yes once again, many apologies!” Thankfully he wasn’t the kind of druggy that got fighty, but he definitely was coming across as the type who would just talk and profess his love of all things. Finally he slid off the car with a grace that his height, intoxication, and extended limbs wouldn’t normally seem capable of. 

Still I gave him a wide berth as I slid past into the safety of my vehicle, locking the doors, giving him a confused stink-eye while he kept talking about nothing that made a lick of sense from outside the car, not even stopping while I pulled away I could see his lips still flapping and hands waving out of the corner of my eye as I finally started driving…

I screamed and nearly veered into a parked car when in the passengers seat next to me he was suddenly seated.

Stomping the breaks hard enough that the seatbelt caught and knocked the wind out of me he gave a yelping “OW!” finally shutting him up as his head collided with the dashboard.

I didn’t even have any words, my brain barely filing a pure sensation of ‘???’ because how?

HOW?

“By the daylight lands this is a fascinating thing.” He said rubbing his forehead barely phased “You know I’ve seen sketches for things similar to this, it’s amazing that you were able to create one, is it done by steam or magic? I heard of some fascinating things done with lemon, copper, and zinc being used to create some kind of power, is that why you have so many delicious le—“

“HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET IN HERE?” My mouth finally came back online.

Apparently he was a goddamn magician who’s secret power was Never. Shutting. Up.

“You… made me? When you started to leave, my parameters were triggered and I was pulled here? I mean did you want me to run alongside the…” He waves his hand around the car and then hesitantly calls it a carriage. “I’m not really the proper demon for that sort of exercise, I mean if that’s your thing I can try but this seems to go quite fast, I was watching them all night, they move quicker than I ever could. I’m not sure even a Fel Horse could keep u—“

What???

“What THE HELL Are You TALKING ABOUT?!?”

“WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME?” He suddenly snapped and yelled back, yet at the same time was mirroring me with cowering against the door like I was the crazy one who was going to harm him even though he was bigger and the weirdo who’d somehow jumped into MY car. 

My locked.  
Moving.  
Car.

Something about him seemed to… Blur as he panicked before coming back into focus.

“Wha-How-Why? WHY are you in my car!” I continued to yell at him feeling a little guilty about it as he continued to cower looking like he was going to cry.

“I’m sorry mistress! You summoned me and I have to be close to you to hold this form, if I don’t please you then just send me back I’m sorry!” He pulled his gangly legs up and covered his head trying to make himself as small as possible, it would have been funny considering his height but it just made my stomach tighten in a sickening way seeing someone do that, his fear radiating off him. 

“…” Mouth working open and shut I tried to think of something to say to that, anything to say to make him maybe calm down but what he was saying made no damn sense.

Until I remembered my game last night.

Some tarts.  
Some words.  
A name.

“Beleigsh’zal?” I whispered at him making him flinch.

“Oh I uh, prefer to go by Dan, I try to keep my true name under wraps you know. But yes, that is I.”

“Oh. My. God.”  
“Uhhh no? No not a God, definitely not one of those. I mean I WISH but I’m afr—”  
“You… What are you?” I interrupted him quickly realizing that was probably the only way I’d get a question in edgewise.

“I’m just me? I’m not sure how to explain what I am, humans summon my kind when they want to fornicate or to get me to fornicate with someone else to distract them or… Yeah just I suppose to distract them. For stuff or- Well honestly, I really never understood human politics so I have no idea, I just did who I was told.”  
“But you look so… Human.”  
“Well of course, when we’re in the human realm your kind tend to prefer we appear like something familiar so as not to frighten. Honestly humans are so particular about their vestigial shells.”

He rolls his eyes at his statement but then rolls his shoulders like he’s shrugging a jacket off and the fuzzy quality to his appearance came back. Suddenly where once there was nothing I could now see a pair of spiral rams horns peaking out from the sides of his fluffy head, his eyes going blacker with what looked like leaking mascara around the lids streaking down his cheeks.  
It was very reminiscent of Alice Cooper.

“You’re a demon…”  
“That’s what you humans call us sometimes yes. You- You summoned me? Why are you so confused about all this?”

“I uh- I didn’t mean to summon you?” I mumbled.

He blinked looking a little taken aback, actually struck silent, which even though I’d only known him for a total of five minutes at most, did seem like a rarity.  
“That’s a very- Well I mean you- um…  
It took a few moments for his brain to catch up, his hands moving like he was about to say a few things but then caught himself from speaking, reconsidered his words, and opted to try again in a different form.  
“Hhooooowwww?”

“There was a book.”  
“Go on.”  
“And I read it.”  
“Mmn.”  
“I mostly thought it was just a cookbook.”  
“You… thought…” He closed his eyes his black lips setting to a thin line “Okay I suppose I can understand that, I know what book you’re talking about.”  
“The recipe was called ‘to ease the hearts desire.’ so I followed it…”  
“Oh?”

Now he grinned and tried to move but the seat, and his horns, and the closed space somewhat prevented it. Instead he just looked like he had a series of uncomfortable spasms trying to put his hand on his head and lean forward. It seemed somewhat like he was trying to be sexy, but fell flat. Thankfully he gave up but the way he spoke was still offering an attempted seduction.

“Well now, here I am~ To fulfill those delicious naughty desires of the deep dark cockles of your heart.” He pursed his lips still not quite making it to ‘sexy’ but very solidly in the ‘cute’ in a sort of dorky way that I tended to like.

“So you have to fulfill my hearts desire?” I asked somewhat surprising myself with how quickly I was falling into being willing to go with this.

“Until you’re shaking and begging me to stop lovely~”

Looking him up and down I grinned biting my bottom lip thinking of everything I could possibly need to really satisfy me.  
“Well~ In that case.”


	3. NSFW

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited December 2017

Isn’t it always the way with men though? 

They make all kinds of big promises of how good they are, how they can do anything, and yet it was barely an hour later and Dan was already begging to stop.

Somehow I wasn’t surprised that even a man who was claiming to be a creature of supernatural powers couldn’t keep up with what I needed from him.

“I can’t, I can’t please, mistress, lovely, my beauty, my sweet Queen, please let me stop I can’t-“ He sobbed like a broken man on his knees at my feet head bowed low. A part of me wondered if I could get him to kiss my shoes from there, not really my thing but I was pretty open minded.

“Seriously? Weren’t you talking earlier about how much Stamina you had? Your legendary Virility? You’ve been at it for hardly three minutes!”

“Please I beg you, I never experienced such labours as this!”

I did sort of feel bad for him, after all such work was probably not normally in the repertoire of what was expected of an Incubus. He wasn’t completely unfamiliar with heavy lifting, but usually it wasn’t more than a few hundred pounds and mostly balanced on his slamming hips.

Lifting dusty boxes filled with junk and decades old rotted furniture were not his usual line of exercise.

“Fine, fine we’ll take a break.” I sighed picking up the box he’d given up on, somewhat surprised at how NOT heavy it was.  
This would be the straw to break that twiggy camels back-

“Oh thank you sweet lady, blessed goddess, darlin-“  
“Stop talking or I’ll assume you’re not actually tired.”  
His mouth clicked shut although it seemed that not talking was taking more effort than carrying boxes had.

Still, I was about ready for a little break myself. The dust was making my skin and eyes itch and I’d originally planned to go for breakfast before coming back to the house to start clearing things out but the (and I felt weird calling him this) demon distracted me from pretty much everything.

After he showed up in my car telling me he was here to help me do what I truly wanted to be happy, I just tunnel visioned with the plan I’d been going over for the last few months.

I wasn’t really used to people, probably the main reason why this house went to me. It had passed down the family line with the stipulation that the house generally went to whichever female of their line was the greatest recluse since this place was to be a haven for them. So some great-aunt I barely knew who maybe I met once had taken note of me somehow for being particular, and instead of money like everyone else had gotten from her estate, I got a piece of paper with an address on it and a bunch of legal documents that I had the choice of filing away somewhere or maybe doing something with.

Considering the property was useless to be sold was the only reason why it hadn’t been already. 

Too boggy, too far out of town, too notoriously cursed…

Although I didn’t really get the “cursed” feeling of the house, well not at first anyway.  
It was in shockingly good condition considering where it was and while my parents had complained that they got evil vibes off the house, which I supposed was what generally kept people away from the property, I weirdly felt genuinely invited once we got out there.

The draw of being so far away from everyone, not really having to deal with all the bullshit of the world, having a place that could be mine and couldn’t be taken away.

My parents wanted me to do what that same great aunt did, file the paperwork away in a safety deposit box and not think of it as anything except a great big vacant tax write off. But I had other plans, my true hearts desire to finally get away from all those things that made me uncomfortable.

But then there was him.

Maybe… He was the curse?

He was certainly a major surprise since he was… A lot of the things I hated to be honest.

He talked too much, stood too close, was too flirty. He looked like all those kinds of guys who knew how good they looked and would tease and talk, but in the end go back to their friends and laugh about how they lead you on, or call you a frigid bitch when you didn’t play along and told them to fuck off.

But then…

Maybe it was that he was a demon that made him feel just a little different, that at his essence none of my human standards or opinions of him mattered because ultimately he existed in a different world than I did. That when he wasn’t flirting, wasn’t thinking about it, his illusion of sensuality and that too perfect face would fade and his eyes would darken to look like some emo cosplayer with the horns and hair that stuck in every direction. That when put to actual work he seemed uncomfortable in his own body, limbs bumping into things, his tail with a mind of its own tripping him up.

Did he wear another mask other than the one of false humanity? Or maybe it was that vibe I had that creeped other people out was the exact kind that he gave too and I was just the right kind of weird to like it?

“For a creature from hell you certainly are not handling this heat very well.” I commented idly coming back into the living room from the car, seeing him laying on the floor fanning himself with a folding fan he’d found in a box. Holding out a bottle of water from the tiny beer cooler in my backseat that you’d brought in with me he took it and just pressed it to his neck with a sigh.

“I’m not from hell, that is yet another human fabrication, I exist…” He waves his fingers in the air seemingly at a bit of a loss for words. “In a place different from this one, less— Less bright, less hard… A LOT less Hot. And because of this, unlike your kind, I don’t have sweat glands.”

“Huh- And here I thought you just weren’t working very hard.” I teased at him but he had been putting in a good effort, more-so I realized now that he was telling me that his world was less harsh. 

Maybe I’d been a bit jealous that at best he seemed to have a little bit of a flushed glow but none of the red-faced, t-shirt soaking, grossness of sweat that I had to deal with.

I less jealous now that I knew he was suffering for it.

“Would you like me to send you back?” The help had been nice and I’d gotten a lot more work done with him there than I would have gotten done alone, if he was really hurting I felt terrible that I’d strung him into it, especially since he worked hard.

Constantly complained but he did work hard.

“I don’t mind being here all that terribly my Sweet. My kind haven’t been in the human realm for, honestly I don’t even know because time passes different. Mostly I’m simply rather drained, especially after all this TORTURE!”

“Is it really torture?” My voice dipped, quiet and serious, I was already feeling a little bad and slowly realizing that maybe he didn’t have a choice in all this and I was forcing him into a realm of existence that was painful for him and making him do manual labour on top of it.

“Oh- Oh no m’lady no I’m okay I was joking, I’m just used to a very DIFFERENT kind of work! This has been fine, I’m fine!” He grinned at me waving his hands which were phasing between normal human fingers and something a little longer, darker, maybe ever so slightly pointer.

His words didn’t make me feel better, anxiety spiking as I was staring off out the window thinking of how he cowered in fear in the car when I had been yelling at him, how quietly he took to task one I brought him here before he warmed up and began babbling again. How instead of just telling me he was getting tired he worked himself to the point of crying out for a respite.

Was this his personality or.

“You didn’t have a choice to be here did you? I’m- I’m forcing you to do this ar—“  
“Aaactually, I did.”

I looked up at him while he sat up crosslegged and looked a little pensive, having an internal debate if he wanted to tell me whatever was on his mind or not.

As on par the course with him so far, if he could choose to talk apparently he would.

“You uh… Well you kind of did the spell wrong. It brought me here, tagged me to you, but you didn’t make any binding circle so… Teechnically I could have left and I mean you weren’t even THERE so you would have never known. I mean, I was even late showing up because I kind of forgot what a summons felt like so I was sort of ignoring it for a while before I figured out what that sensation was.”

“Oh.” I felt a little odd, not sure what to make of this information since it scarcely made sense to me, I’d played D&D before but not as in-depth as some did, but I did read enough fantasy to kind of put two and two together. It made sense that I’d summoned him wrong, and he could have ignored the summons and went on with his life and honestly I’d be none the wiser. Heck he could have come and just pissed off somewhere else ignoring me completely and yet here he was… Helping clean.

“Why did you stay?”

His face turned serious and he leaned forward slapping the dusty floor with both of his hands “Those /Tarts!/”

I blinked startled by the emotion of his statement and more than a little confused.

“I would gladly run through a legion of firebats naked and covered in oil for those luscious tarts. Now the last time I had lemon tarts they were pretty okay, well worth it to pay a visit and have a pretty pleasant time or two with the summoner, but your tarts?” He didn’t even have words for it so he moaned, his head tilted back like he was orgasming right there from the memory of it. The delighted little shiver he gave and the soft satisfied smirk as he looked back at me really made me question if he DID get off when he’d been eating them.

“You get turned on baked goods?”  
“Normally? No. Yours? Apparently yes.” He admitted without shame. “Generally when you summon one of my kind or just something from my realm it’s because we’re stronger, faster, better than humans.”

He ignored my skeptical look considering how fast he’d dropped when it came to doing hard labour.  
“So when we’re summoned most witches know to put down a binding circle so if we’re in a poor mood we don’t break things or get too out of control. Depending on the witch and what they’re summoning, they would also be wise to bring some kind of a sacrifice to sweeten our mood which then sweetens whatever deal you try to broker with us.”  
“Sacrifice?”  
“Of course, you give something to get something, money, valuables, blood, life essence.”  
“Baking?”  
“Well that’s just my preference to start negotiations with. Giving an opening gift when wanting to start any type of negotiations butters up anyone I imagine.”

I went quiet with thought while he cracked open the water and took a drink making a face at it when he did.

“So… What’s our deal?”  
“UM…” He looked uncomfortable right then and his shoulders pulled up into an ‘I don’t know’ pose. “USUALLY We would negotiate that before I even step out of the binding circle and get my tarts. USUALLY I’m summoned for very specific cardinal endeavours and not… This.” He gestured to the boxes with the bottle in his hand. “USUALLY I’d have more energy than I do because I would have received a partial or full payment for services by now. I have /No/ idea what we’re doing to be honest.”

“Oh, well then.” Looking around and having no chairs I sat down mimicking his pose, cross legged on the floor, facing him seriously. “Lets negotiate.”

He nodded also serious, his eyes taking on a bit of a golden glow even though there was still that ever present spark of amusement behind them.

“You already pulled an hour of hard labour out of me and I’ve been bound to this realm by you for over half a day.” He opened smugly, I could tell he thought he had the upper hand here already but I wasn’t about to be taken for a ride.

“However you ate all my tarts. Tarts you admit you basically knocked your rocks off with, that you also admitted you were supposed to eat yet.”

“Point taken.” He seemed a touch surprised but the amused look got stronger. “Opening bid then; You give me something else to drink other than this.” He pushed his opened bottle toward me.

“Oh… You don’t like water?” I didn’t even think of it, once again feeling rude for being a poor host.

“I don’t entirely object to it but it is very strange tasting to me and I’ve never been partial to drinking water in general.”  
“I have Pepsi if that’s ok?”  
“Um…”

I crawled over to the cooler and looked over my shoulder while grabbing the soda, he had a bit of a blank misty look to his face like he was thinking, or really it looked like he was downloading something from the air the way his eyes were flicking across a book that didn’t exist, at least not to my sight.

“I don’t understand what a ‘Pepsi’ is. I have the idea it’s a drink but there are many words in this world I simply can not comprehend.” He seemed to be talking more to himself than to me, looking still confused when I passed him a can that as he turned it over in his hands he seemed to not know what to do with.

“DON’T!” I stopped him feeling a bit bad about how he jumped but after he looked it over and brought it up to his ear I could tell he was about to give it a shake. “Don’t shake it. It’s carbonated.”

“Once more that is one of the words I don’t entirely understand.”

“You don- It- Y’know I’ll just get you a cup from my car, but you have to explain to me how or what you’re talking about right now with knowing words without knowing them.”  
“Deal.”  
"And DON'T shake the can!"

I could tell from the parting look on Dan’s face that my warning was just making him want to disobey me even more and give the can a solid shake, I hoped for both our sakes he was more obedient than the impish sulk made me think.

I grabbed him a cup, it was used but it didn’t take much to give it a quick rinse on my way back inside, and I hoped he wouldn’t mind, or at least wouldn’t noticed that it was just a plastic cup that once held a slushee. Considering he didn’t seem to know what Pepsi was I felt pretty confident that he’d remain ignorant.

A conviction that was solidified with how absolutely floored he was when I opened his drink. Fascinated as I showed him how the can opened, the hiss of the carbonation, the foam when it when into the cup. Playing with the tab top once the can was drained he took the clear plastic container from me and stared into it questioning the drink as it fizzed.

“Is it a sort of beer?”  
“No, it’s not alcoholic at all.”  
“Fermented in any way?”  
“I don’t- Actually I don’t know but I don’t think so?”

Dan gave it a curious sniff and I had to look away covering my mouth because his nose wigged and he gave the cutest little sneeze as it tickled him. I heard him slurp a hesitant sip and cough at the fizz but as I looked back his face wasn’t upset.  
No he looked more like a man getting an unexpected blowjob. 

Surprised, pleased, and giddily turned on. 

He gave a high sigh that was almost a moan as he drank more, not chugging as I expected him to hearing that pleased sound, but resting the cup on his lips so that just a small flow was constantly streaming into his mouth around the sounds that were bordering obscene.

“Are you… Getting off on that?”  
Swallowing first and licking the edge of the cup to make sure he didn’t miss a drop he gave me a lazy grin.  
“Pretty fucking close.” He sighed a hand fluttering to his chest in shock as he let out a belch looking startled that it happened.

“Ooookay…” I drawled wondering what his deal was exactly. “Before you blow your load explain to me how you apparently know things without understanding them?”

He sat up but was staring more at his drink than me, clearly distracted but willing to answer.  
“Well to state again, I’m not human. The way my kind work we potentially could be summoned to any place in your realm by any number of humans. And for some reason you humans don’t all speak the same language.”

“So you…?” I trailed off having no possible clue how this worked other than the obvious ‘it’s magic’ 

“So once I am summoned part of the initial sacrifice of whatever it is you give us is to also acclimatize us to you. A part of you, a part of your knowledge, or spirit, or thoughts, is put into the works you do- your tarts in this case- when I consume them I also get access to parts of that knowledge, but it’s not perfect because obviously I’m not living your experiences, I just get a dictionary of the words for them. So I know words but not what they fully mean if it’s something completely outside of my knowledge base or my people just don’t have a word for whatever it is you’re saying. And this… This is so good.” He took another mouthful, his tail curling and uncurling while he practically vibrated with pleasure. “There are no words to describe how good this is.”

The tarts, the pepsi, I was starting to get an idea of how he might work, my mind forcing itself to think outside of the box of how normal humans were and into the parameters of ‘this is a magical creature with it’s own rules and preferences’ and there was one thing about him… But I needed to test this hypothesis a little more first.

“Huh, that’s kind of cool… Just… One last thing while we continue negotiations.” Getting up I went back to the cooler and dug around finding a snack, opening a pack of candy I tossed him one. “Eat that. Oh- be careful, it’s a little hard at first but chewy in the middle so you don’t have to suck on it, you can just bite.” 

Realizing if he didn’t know what Pepsi was, or a car, or quite a few things, then maybe candy was also new? I honestly had no idea how old candy was in general but I knew it sometimes could be a cultural thing too so I felt a little stupid explaining to him how to eat something, but he nodded with such a serious expression like I actually gave him something informative I didn’t feel too weird.

Rolling the tiny red orb I’d thrown him between his thumb and index he glanced up with a trusting shrug popped it into his mouth.

I heard the crunch as he bit in but more than that his eyes went wide and a shiver ran up his body, his tail pointed straight up into the air, frozen for a long enough moment of time I actually started to panic wondering if he was ok, if I might have hurt or killed him somehow.  
Stepping forward hoping that CPR worked on whatever he was as well as it did on people I stopped short as his eyes rolled shut, and he bit his bottom lip, shuddering again with a whimper, barely pushing his drink out of the way while his head bowed until it was touching the floor which was impressive since he was sitting cross-legged on the floor.

“Are you-“ I was hovering close enough that I barely caught his harshly whispered sob, an accusatory “You fiend.”

“What?”

“You draw me here and feed me nectar and ambrosia fit for the highest of Gods.” His voice cracked sounding broken and in awe, hands drawing up to pull at his hair but kept his head down still shaking with some strange emotion. “You jest, you surely play with me, sweet Goddess grant me mercy I am but a humble servant and beg your tenderest of leaves! Please you cannot present me with such earthly delights, I will die, you are killing me, by the daylight do you wish to drive me mad?”

He shifted now, pulling forward onto his elbows, untangling his legs so he could place himself into a position of full grovelling still gently whispering half to me and half to himself of what he had done to deserve this heaven, questioning if this was some new pleasurable torment.

And all I had done was give him a Skittle.

I didn’t know if it was his species or just him, but it was pretty damn clear that he was addicted to sugar.

Kneeling down I gave his back an awkward pat making him tense and sit up a sad puppy look on his face.

“So-“ I looked at the little snack pack hefting it gently. He knew I knew I absolutely had the upper hand here. “Back to negotiating our deal?”  
“Vixen.” He muttered but nodded eyes mostly on the candy.

“What would you offer if I gave you this entire bag?”

“My lighted Queen!” He perked making me feel bad because the poor guy either had an amazing poker face and this was all a very weirdly elaborate ruse to trick me, or he had zero filter and was about to get played and played hard. “For every gem of delight in that package that crosses my lips I would give you a hundred pleasurable nights of ecstasy.”

“Oh boy. How about for each candy, you give me an hour of manual labour?”

Dan made a sour face like he would much rather be enslaved for a few years as my bedmate than go back to cleaning and lifting boxes. But he bit his lip, his tail twitching like a cat ready to pounce, even wiggling in his spot like he was going to do just that, eyes only on the prize I shook the little package of skittles and he folded like card tower in a hurricane.

“Deal.”

I handed him the pack expecting him to tear into it like a child but instead he carefully pulled out one more of the candy before a little pouch from seemingly nowhere appeared in his hand and put the rest of the bag in there. Placing the candy in his mouth it was hard not to watch him, the room feeling like it was suddenly getting warmer as a look of serene bliss enveloped his face. A soft almost sexual purr rumbled from his chest as he sat there in a semi-meditative state, savouring his candy and drinking his soda in perfect silence.

Really it was the quietest he’d been all day.

Watching him I ate a cereal bar and, after giving the mouth a half-assed rub with my hand, drank his unwanted water bottle, not wanting to interrupt his… Whatever I stayed quiet, thinking about what I’d gotten myself into and who got the better part of the deal here.  
Going back to work I didn’t bother him, but I was curious how long he would sit there like that.

Especially since he had about 10 hours worth of hard work to get to.


	4. You and Me ain't Nothin' but Mammals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edited December 2017

Dan lasted about 5 more hours.

Putting his head down, setting his jaw to the task, he more than earned not just the one small fun-sized bag, but really deserved a full sized bag of candy for each hour he worked without complaint. I honestly felt BAD since he still didn’t realize how much I’d fleeced him in this deal but he wasn’t wrong when he said that demons were stronger than humans. 

Rejuvenated (and probably on a sugar high I couldn’t even imagine) he’d worked alongside me until the house was completely clear of everything that had been stored inside of it, each room swept and scrubbed out and there was no more work for the two of us to do.

It was a task I was thinking would take me the better part of a week to do with parts of it that as we were working I realized I’d need help for anyway. But when Dan finally shut up and really put an effort in he worked as hard as an entire cleaning team of people.

As we cleared out the rooms I’d driven back and forth to the town, loads of furniture, random boxes of stuff to put into storage until I had time to go through them. For now I wanted everything out of the house for when the housing inspectors came to assess what work I’d need to do with the place to get it up to living standards. I didn’t have to get everything out but it certainly would make it easier to see everything and once work could get started I’d have to move it all anyway so it was nice to get it done in one go instead of having to space things out.

I knew some of the work that needed to be done on the place already.

The building had basic plumbing, sinks and very old looking toilets that were hooked up to something but everything had to be at least 50 years old and wherever the water once came from either was gone or clogged or not hooked up anymore. I didn’t know the first thing about home repair so I wanted to get someone in to give me a quote or at least a look around to see roughly where I would need to start. I hoped it didn’t need to be completely gutted and rebuilt because overall the structure of the building still looked good.

Plus I knew I absolutely couldn’t afford that.

If I was being totally honest I wasn’t sure I’d be able to afford much by way of getting anything fixed. A part of me was hoping that somehow the only thing the place would need was the cleaning and then by some magic would be perfectly okay.

Something that was more likely than I realized when I commented on how well the house had withstood the test of time and Dan had informed me that it did so because it was indeed magically protected, possibly a deal struck years ago with a different creature from his realm.

It was nice to know that the place had some solid foundations though.

Unfortunate to think of how that would affect a normal human contractor from being able to fix anything.

“So I guess… Do you go back to your realm now?” I’d asked as he put the last box into the back of my rented truck.  
“Can’t…” He mumbled looking at me while blinking a little heavily. He’d been quit for a while now, and his form was shifted out of his more human appearance into the demonic one. He’d been like that long enough to the point that I’d gotten used to it.  
I wasn’t familiar enough and he hadn’t complained, concentrating on working hard so I hadn’t noticed how wreaked he looked until now, clearly crashing from his sugar high and I’d probably put him through his paces harder than anyone else had in a long time.

Still…

“Why not?” I asked, confused as to why he wouldn’t be jumping at the chance to get out of here.

“Still have 5 more hours on the contract and I need to feed on some energy to get-" he yawned, "The oomph to get home.”  
“Feeding on energy?”  
“Incubus.” He explained with one word making me realize he really was well and truly wiped out. Had I been anyone else I wouldn’t have understood what he meant by that short reason.

But I supposed had I been anyone else he wouldn’t have been here in the first place.

I knew, at least hypothetically, how Incubi and Succubi worked based on simply being a nerd, that they got their powers or energy from humans, usually by sleeping with them.

So I knew he’d need to have sex in order to really get his energy back.

I guessed in that case the sugar was just drugs for him, not actual sustaining food which made sense considering how he was with it.

I hoped I wasn’t creating an addiction problem for him.

“Well c’mon then, lets head back into town.” I couldn’t, well more wouldn’t do anything for him out here, so with a smile I guided him into the car where he immediately fell asleep.

Feeling bad I left him to rest as I unloaded the back of the truck myself, even stopping to pick up some Chinese food to take back to the motel.

Over the course of the day I’d gotten so used to him I didn’t even think twice when I woke him up just enough to guide him into my room where he fell face first onto the only bed in the room and continued his slumber.

It wasn’t until I was thinking about where to eat my dinner, him taking up my usual space of balancing a takeout box on my knees while watching youtube on my phone, that I fully realized there was a man I’d only known for less than 24 hours in my motel room and I had nowhere else to go.

Not just a man really. 

A literal sex demon.

Sitting in the chair by the window I picked at my meal, trying to relax by watching my regular shows but a little distracted by Dan. Sucking on my chopsticks I stared at him, wondering if it would be safe to share the bed, I was a generally trusting person and after even this short amount of time would feel okay calling him a friend, but he was a demon and didn’t say, but implied he needed to have sex for food.  
He was pretty much out cold right now and other than some heavy-handed innuendo he hadn’t done anything unseemly toward me. We had spent the entire day out in the middle of nowhere together, at any point he could have done anything he wanted to me and hadn’t.

It was a slightly chilling realization. 

When I’d first met him it had just been such a whirlwind of oddity, him being a demon, me having summoned him. As he’d explained his position, I thought I had control of him, by the way he was acting and speaking my guard had been completely down the whole day. But now that he wasn’t awake to distract me, now that I was finally thinking about everything with a clear head, I remembered he’d told me that afternoon that he actually didn’t HAVE to act that way at all. He could have taken what he’d needed from me right then in the car, or later at the house to get the energy to get back to his own home.

It was scary to think, he didn’t really need to be a demon to have hurt me at any point today, I felt stupid for blindly trusting him but, he hadn’t hurt me. He’d done his work fairly and to the best of his ability, hadn’t shrunk out of anything

I felt bad calling him a demon at all considering how honest and kind he’d been the entire day. Better than most people I knew, but then again it made sense that anything stronger than humans that would give a woman an edge over men would so quickly be labelled evil even when it clearly wasn’t.

Thinking about how terrible humans were without any kind of demonic temptation I was stabbed with a pang of guilt.

Demons were the ones who held all the strings and usually gave shit deals to humans, but in this scenario I was the bad guy. 

All he wanted was some candy and here I was working him to the bone doing something he clearly hated doing and wasn’t really his normal working conditions.

I really owed him big time, if one of my friends had done this for me I’d at least offer them a bit of money, take them out to a nice dinner, maybe bake them a cake.

I didn’t really have a kitchen yet to make Dan anything but I could at least bring him to a grocery store and let him have his run of the candy isle.

Pulled from my thoughts by a soft grumble Dan pushed himself up from the bed and into a kneeling position, sleepily trying to pull off his jacket. He must have woken from being too warm but as his arms moved he winced, stopping his motions, woken more fully by a feeling of pain he tried to get his jacket off again finding his arms locked, hurting, and not responding well to his commands.

He should have drank the water I kept offering him.

“Why- Why does my body ache so? Am I poisoned? Have you poisoned me?” He looked at me shocked and scared, his entire body feeling tight and a creeping sickness pooling in his gut.

“No, at least I don’t think I did? Your body is like, a regular humans right? Like bound to the rules and biological functions of this world right?”  
“Yes.”  
“Then chances are you’re dehydrated and if anything have a serious case rotgut from eating nothing but candy all day.”

He frowned his brow furrowing as he must have been translating what I was saying, I could hear him grumble something that sounded akin to ‘stupid mortal form’ but with quite a few expletives in languages I didn’t understand.

“Need help?”  
“No I— Just gotta—“ He wriggled and made a sharp noise in the back of his throat before giving up. “Yes.”

With an amused smile I got up and helped him out of his jacket. Maybe in another context it would have been sexual or romantic, after all he was an incubus, but right now it was more motherly and maybe a little gross since he had a bit of a strong smell under that leather after a hard day of work.

It wasn’t the worst B.O I’d ever caught wind of, if anything it was a little strange, a combination of the leather and something sweet but also musky.

“Ugh god you need to take a shower.”  
“I what? Are you saying I- I stink!?”  
“Yes.”

“Well I!” He sounded absolutely offended but then smelled himself and recoiled a little. “Okay, actually that is fair. Ugh but I don’t want to go to a bathhouse, I don’t think I can sustain a glamour.”  
“Bathh-? No there’s a bathroom right there.”

Now it was his turn to look confused, not able to imagine that such a small room could possibly have everything needed to take a bath. He felt a little silly for being surprised when he followed her into the smaller room with a bath and a basin which she pointed out was a toilet not even bothering to ask if he understood its functions, instead just showing him how everything worked.

It was a marvel that he knew wasn’t magic, he’d seen somewhat similar things while they were in development by other cultures thousands of years ago, just never to this level of compact size, effectiveness, and speed.  
He was so floored by all of it he didn’t even try making a pass at her as she helped him pull his shirt over his aching arms only realizing the missed opportunity when she fled the room as he started to remove his pants.

Really after a day like today he kind of figured she would have rejected him anyway. For all she didn’t know of sorcery she clearly was going to be a natural talent, he thought to himself, she had the singleminded focus for it, no matter how charming he’d tried to be he was scantly able to distract her at all from making him work.

Dan absolutely took longer in the shower than he should have, but under the hot flow of water he felt his muscles loosen and might have fallen asleep standing a few times while trying the various scented soaps on his body and hair.

He heard a tapping on the door after a lost period of time and a called out question of “You didn’t drown in there did you?”  
“No!” But he followed with a sheepish “I fell asleep again.” glad to hear her laugh at that.

It was one thing he was glad he could do for her, keeping her mood light with some of his good humour, doing that was probably the only thing that got him through today.

I on the other hand had just been watching TV, softening the volume once in a while to listen to Dan as he started to sing. Silly songs mostly, the words drifting out I could here snippets of lyrics as he sang about cookies, or hearing the chorus of something which consisted of just the word “Dick” followed up with a “Balls!” and an immature peal of giggles.

It was during the final long gap of silence that I got worried he might have slipped or something.

He came out a few moments later with just a towel around his waist low on his hips. It was hard not to take an indulgent sweep of his body, he’d found the energy to shift more human again, and the figure he had was a little pale, a lot of skinny, but moved with a grace betraying a muscular strength that was obvious even despite how stiff he clearly was.

As fast as I tried to look away he caught the stare and smirked coming closer to the bed looking down at me with bedroom eyes, one hand on his hip, the other reaching out to me.  
“Is it your turn now to get naked and wet~?”

“UM!” It was hard to control my burning cheeks, hoping only that my blush wasn’t that noticeable as I shot up to get away before he actually touched my face. 

Throwing some things of mine at him that might fit for pyjama’s, a pair of black yoga shorts and an oversized black tank-top, I gestured to the table and muttered something quickly at him about helping himself to the food and that he should drink some water even if he didn't like it in order to feel better. 

Grabbing clothes for myself, intent on changing in the bathroom I beelined it in there, making a point to lock the door needing to lean against it for a moment.

I were much faster in there than he was, not like that was difficult considering he’d been in there for hours relaxing and soaking in the heat, while all I wanted was to sleep. But I did take a longer time that I usually would, I was feeling a little anxious about sleeping in the same room as him, especially doing so next to him.  
I wasn’t about to make him sleep on the floor or in a chair, that would be rude and cruel, and generally I felt like I could trust him enough considering everything so far that he wouldn’t molest me in the night, but still.

It was awkward…

He’d started to grow on me and he was kinda cute in his own way.

Definitely not the sexy he was trying to present himself with his human glamour, but certainly cute… Cute enough that sometimes it did surprise me into feeling more than I maybe should have since we barely knew each other.

Thankfully his cute was also in an annoying way, any hesitation I had as I came out of the shower evaporated as I saw he’d fallen asleep again, sprawled out on the bed like a starfish, at least thankfully with having put on the pants I’d offered him.

He barely stirred when I shoved him over to take my place next to him, letting him stay above the blankets as I burrowed myself into them. Finding it easier than I thought it would be to fall asleep, not even caring, and if anything finding it more comfortable, when he rolled over and cuddled me.

I don’t think I’d slept that well in a long while.


	5. Do the kind of stuff that only Prince would sing about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update December 2017

I was strangely comfortable if not a little warm, my dreams the entire night had been pleasant enough that I knew I wanted to stay asleep, but I was tired from working hard the day before that I couldn’t remember them. I hardly noticed the odd tugging sensation even though I was aware enough of it for it to draw me out of slumber.

It was hard to describe, a curious feeling if anything, not physical but the closest approximation of a description of it I could muster would be that it felt like I could feel my blood pumping to my neck, pooling there in warmth before flowing back with a cooler sensation to the rest my body.

Only I was still aware that, that wasn’t what was happening at all leaving me with a strange discomfort I felt the need to address.

Half asleep and idling wondering about the feeling a shift by Dan gave me a bit of a start, I’d forgotten that he was there with me and so a part of the heat was his breath against my neck. The few seconds of confusion made me wake up all at once, immediately sitting up and feeling the strangest sensation of a snap as that flow of energy cut off abruptly.

Dan’s eyes fluttered open at my movement so it was clear he wasn’t really awake when he was doing, whatever it was he had been doing to me.

Still looking up at me with a lazy grin he blinked back his own confusion, I suppose more used to waking up with bedmates than I was, before his brow wrinkled and he curiously licked his lips touching them with a perplexed, followed quickly by an embarrassed, look on his face.

“Oh… I’m- I’m deeply sorry. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.” He said sheepishly as he sat up.

Now I was rubbing the point on the back of my neck where his lips had been, no longer feeling that odd pull but a kind of residual tingle, it didn’t feel like a hickey but something happened and I just didn’t have the words for it, but if Dan was taking the blame.  
“What did you do?”  
“You must have been having a sexy dream, I was feeding. I know I’m certainly hungry enough to do so in my sleep, I don’t think I’ve ever fed off of dream lust before… That—“ He licked his lips again looking contemplative. “-That is a very particular taste.”  
“I- You-“ There were so many questions and emotions I had to his reply and I wasn’t sure if anger was the best start. Curiosity won out this round. “I have a TASTE? Wait no, you were FEEDING on me?!”

He had enough sensibilities to at least look ashamed of doing so, perfectly understanding why I might be upset.  
“I know, I’m sorry, I swear on the light of all the realms I didn’t do that intentionally. I swear I’ve never fed in my sleep before.” He shifted uncomfortably “I usually feed before I sleep but I um.” Now he looked outright embarrassed “I- I’m really sorry about that I mean, I wanted to- Not feed but please you, after you were done bathing, but I was just so tired I- I honestly can’t believe I just fell asleep, I’m deeply sorry I— I wasn’t able to pefromforyouandthat’sREALLYneverhappenedbefore.”  
At the level of embarrassment and mumbled humiliation in his tone I could imagine a sex creature foregoing sex in order to sleep was probably unheard of amongst his kind, but I could also imagine this entire trip for him was going to be one for the books.

“And you taste delightful.”

He added that pulling me out of my head where I was thinking maybe a little too deeply on the logistics of an entire culture and people based around a sex based food and energy exchange type of system, would this be considered a dine and dash? Something worse? Just a cultural faux pas? He certainly was embarrassed but also if he was that hungry then…

“How often do you uh- feed?”  
“As often as I can.”  
“Yes but how often do you NEED to?”

He wobbled his hand and shrugged.  
“Depends on what I’ve been doing? If I were to feed to the point of fullness and perform tasks as I did yesterday then probably once every two or three days at least? Maybe a little longer, but it would be terrible however I would be able to survive off of it for a while. Now, if I were to not be doing very much, simply relaxing then once in a fortnight give or take before I were to well and truly starve. If I were back in my own realm then well, time passes oddly and I would easily be able to share energies with others of my kind so I’m not even sure, once every few years I suppose? But the human realm drains me differently and human energies feed me better and I’ve never really had need to, nor want to test my bounds so…” He trailed off with an over-exaggerated shrug.

It made sense, I mean I didn’t know how long I could go before endangering myself with exhaustion and starvation. Did I actually work him an entire day without letting him eat? 

No wonder he was chewing on me in his sleep.

“Do you um- Need to feed now?” I was trying to keep cool but I could feel a heat rise in my cheeks and had to look away when he grinned at me with a different kind of hungry look.

Or maybe for him that was just regular hunger.

“Well, I don’t absolutely /need/ to but I certainly would delight in doing so.” He smiled in a wicked way that slowly melted into something more uncertain as I just sat there, picking at the skin around my thumbnail, still not sure what exactly I needed to do since he probably needed to feed, I could remember yesterday he’d said he didn’t even have the energy to get home and I couldn’t ask him to work more running on fumes, how cruel would that be?

“You’re not…” He sounded worried now, his face full of concern. I supposed he wasn’t used to humans who would hesitate at the chance to jump into bed with him, after all he’d said no one summoned him for much other than sex so someone being shy. I didn’t even know what a social equivalent of that was for him but clearly it left him somewhat distraught.  
“Are- are you still but a maiden?”  
“What?”  
“A maiden.” He clarified pulling back from me. “Have you never lain with a man before?”  
“Yes… No… Wait that’s a double negative. I mean I have had sex before.”

His hand fluttered to his chest and he visibly relaxed with a muttered ‘oh starlight’

“Would it be a problem if I was a virgin?”  
“Oh bless no, just- Well I’d feel like a horrible creature, to have your first a night of primal delights with me, you’d never find satisfaction with a mortal male afterward.”

There was that cheeky grin again that made me give him a dull look and come closer just to grab a pillow off the bed and attempt to beat him with it because that was just too cocky even from someone who was supposed to be a sex demon.

Dan’s mirth at my assault was palpable, his delighted giggles pulling out laughter from me, that his smile went from an attempted seduction to goofy faces and counter attacks relaxed me to the point that when he captured my soft weapon and pinned my hands, his body over me, weight holding me down, I didn’t think much of it beyond the giggling fun until he paused, that smouldering look back in his eyes.

Chest clenching, heart beating in my ears, I felt there wasn’t enough air between us as his lips dipped down to brush mine leaving a tingling burn that made my stomach flutter.

“I’ve never had a woman deny me this long before.” He purred, his mouth making its way to my neck, hands caressing down my sides bringing another giggle out of me, I could feel his grin against my neck. “Sweetness, may I?”  
“Yeah-“ Lifting myself up I allowed him to pull off the t-shirt I’d worn to bed.

“Oh.” He sighed looking at me his mouth as usual constantly running. “Lovely, beautiful, lussshmmf?“

Covering his mouth with my hands he looked confused, I wasn’t looking at him, instead I was starting to pull back, feeling shy about my looks because he was talking about them and I knew what he was saying was so over the top with how untrue it was.

Breasts too big, flesh too soft, nothing on me that I would think of a word of praise for. Not that I hated myself per-say, but I just knew what I looked like and didn’t need to be lied to about it.

He took my hand on his mouth, kissing the palm, giving me a puzzled look.  
“Why do you quake so?” his mouth moved to my wrist. “You are exquisite.” Pulling me closer to peck my shoulder and tickle at my neck with his facial hair. “Truly a Goddess that would make Venus herself green with envy.”

“Shutup I’m not…” It was a half-hearted grumble, soaking up but equally fearing his words, wanting to believe but knowing them as lies.

“You /are/“ He insisted hands now cupping my breasts, face pressed to them with a delighted groan. “I would travel thousands of miles and face the deadliest of beast and trial for but a taste of this.”

“Ohmygod do you never shut up?” Covering my face I wasn’t mad, instead giggling at how sincere he sounded at how his mouth tickled as it moved downward mumbling a saucy “Only when I’m eating~” the direction of his mouth and how his hands were making their way to pull at your shorts giving me a good idea of just what he wanted to consume.

Flinching with a stifled scream I felt something that was not his hands slide up my leg, grabbing at it my brain immediately filled in the idea of ‘snake’ making me kick at him and try to pull at the creature in the bed with us to get it out.

Dan shot up with a startled pained yelp, giving me the space to look down and see that it was not a snake in my hand but instead I’d given his poor tail a solid yank. 

“Apologies Princess.” He said sweetly through clenched teeth gently pulling his tail out from my hands to set it free letting it swish around making me feel a little better knowing that at least I hadn’t damaged it. “You’ll have to just ignore that. For the most part it has a mind of its own.”

“Oh god I’m sorry, I didn’t realize.” I put one arm over my breasts feeling embarrassed but also curious about it, and him. He’d been phasing back and forth between his more human form and demonic one, I imagine it had something to do with his energy levels and concentration and the tail was certainly interesting.

“Can I- Can I touch it?”  
“Only if you promise to play nice~” He teased but brought it back to his hand and let me gently take hold once more.

It was a strange thing, smooth and delicately scaled like a snake but at the tip it ended in a fluff of silky hair like a lion’s tail. I ran my fingers over the fuzzy end causing him to shiver and the tail to twitch out of my hands.

“Sorry, does that hurt?”  
“No, it’s just a very peculiar sensation… Like- Like-” After a moment of thought Dan took my leg and then ever so gently tickled along the back of my kneecap. It wasn’t ticklish but the strange sensation made my leg jerk with how particular it was.  
“Similar to that. Not bad simply, queer.”

He was a curiosity to me, how different and yet in some ways the same his body was. I wanted to touch him, to explore where the scales ended, how his horns grew, the plains and strange colouration of his face. My hands reached out hesitantly but I pulled back, not wasn’t supposed to be about me, not entirely at least, it was supposed to be about him getting the energy he needed to be comfortable in this world.

Leaning back again I did my best to maybe look sexy for him, biting my lip and coaxing him back to me, letting him continue from where I’d so rudely interrupted him. Relaxing into the flow of whatever he wanted, I tried to ignore the usual array of insecurities that came up on the rare occasion that I would be with someone else, just glad I’d taken a shower the night before as his face dipped back down between my thighs.

A man on a mission he was certainly very skilled. Lips, tongue, fingers working deftly, testing techniques to see what made me sigh and squirm. Closing my eyes I pushed aside any anxiety about how I might smell or taste, ignoring parts of my mind to just focus on the sensation, wiggling my hips and gently pulling at his hair with encouragement when he did something that would bring me closer to completion. It wasn’t that I deeply disliked oral sex, just that it made me more worried than anything else, did my partner even like doing it? Was my hair getting in the way? Wasn’t it a bit gross? Unhygienic?

Him pulling back and looking at me with a perplexed frown didn’t help.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” A little frustrated since now that he stopped I went from a solid 7 on a 10 point “about to orgasm” scale right back down to a 0 and the way he was looking at me I knew no matter how good he was I wasn’t going to get back there.

What was wrong? Was I being too rough with his hair? Not rough enough? Too much noise? Not enough? Sick worry was bubbling in me, I should have just faked an orgasm a few minutes ago.

“Is- Is it me?” He asked softer, looking uncertain and a little bit like he was going to cry snapping me out of my own self deprecating head.

“What? No! What are you talking about?”

“You’re not- You’re not really… Aroused.”

It was like he’d thrown a bucket of ice water on me because ultimately he was right. Certainly I was wet, my body knew how to respond to a partners touch but in that beyond chasing a fleeting physical urge I…

Didn’t.

Really.

Care.

“Oh- No it’s fine I- Just don’t worry about it, we can have sex anyway if you want.”

Slow horror crawled over his face and he physically pulled away, backing out of the bed before I could catch him.

“Oh daylight it /is/ me! I’m so, so sorry sweet Princess that I would dare to present myself to you looking as I do.” Now it was his turn to cover his chest with his arms, looking away tugging his long curly mop of hair over his eyes to hide his shame. “Scrawny, hideous, waif that I am how could I be so impudent to think that you would find this form pleasing to your eye.” He continued to berate himself.

It took me a halfway through his self deprecating speech before I even registered that he wasn’t rejecting me but beating himself up about not being good enough for me. Repeating ‘No’ while crawling closer to try to get him to look at me, I grabbed his arm to pull him back to sit on the bed, not knowing how he knew but needing to explain.

“No, it’s not you, really, trust me you are so fucking hot.”

“You jest.” He snorted breaking my heart as I could see now the truth in his eyes, that he really didn’t think himself as attractive as his presented persona, that all the things he was saying about himself he thought were true.

“No Dan, really you ARE, if anything I’m surprised you can stand to look at me—“ That got a harsh bark of sad laughter. “But it’s not you, it’s really, really not it’s me I’m- I’m-”  
“Disgusted? Not interested? Pitying me?”

“Asexual.”

Dan’s mouth snapped shut and he squinted at me silently, his brow furrowed with as he looked up thinking hard about what I said but not understanding the word, or parts of him understanding fragments of it but not how it could apply to me in this context.

It wasn’t his language barrier, I actually got this pretty much every time I told someone.

“It means I don’t like sex, or I don’t want or have urges to have sex, sex is- well for me it’s just kinda boring.” And if I was being honest, uncomfortable and gross, but I didn’t want to put that on him, not when he was already blaming himself for being unattractive.

He looked away, his head cocked to the side thinking about this, processing the information.

Mortal men were just as boggled by the concept, I’d had enough dates with guys where I had to explain to them multiple times, before the date, during, and after, about how I didn’t, and probably would never want to have sex with them. I could only imagine how ground-breaking the concept would be to a creature that sustained itself on sexual energy.

For him it would be like meeting someone who said they didn’t like nor need to breathe.

“Are you… Under a curse?” He questioned still trying to wrap his mind around it.

“Sometimes I sure feel like it, but no, this isn’t a curse.”

“Did someone… Hurt you?”

It was sweet of him to ask but I’d also fielded this question enough times that it rankled me with how annoying it was, that if someone didn’t want sex it must be because they’d had such a bad experience with it.

I think it bothered me most because so many people after thought that they could heal me with the power of their dick.

“No, no one has ever done anything to me that I wasn’t okay with. Look, are you attracted to men?”  
“Yes.”

Okay that probably shouldn’t have surprised me considering he was a sex demon.

“Okay, let me try that again, like would you have sex with... An animal?”  
“Oh darkness no!”  
“Okay, there you go, that’s how I feel toward you, I mean not quite the same since personally I'm not horrified at the idea, although some asexuals are but that's not the point. The point is, it’s not that you’re ugly- And I’m not comparing you specifically to an animal either that’s not the issue- That’s just kind of how I feel when it comes to having sex with men.”

His face lit up in misguided understanding “Oh! Oh so you are a sapphic! Oh my sweet tenderhearted Queen you didn’t need to force yourself into such a state for me! I can change!”

His body took on that blurry quality again, the hair on his face disappearing, features softening, I could see as he now sat up straighter with his confidence returning, there were small pert breasts on his chest. “Is this better?”

I wanted to bless him because he was at least trying even if it was in a completely off base sort of way but…

“Uh, no. I’m asexual, not a lesbian.”

Dan’s face fell and he looked away once more, slumping forward, lip quivered “So- So I am just ugly to you?”

God I hated explaining this.

“No! You’re not I’m just- Look we can have sex, it doesn’t bother me, you are attractive and I do prefer men over women and you are and were, and still are even now, hella hot- Attractive I mean, like you are super good looking. And I’m not stroking your ego for shits and giggles, if I were normal I would have probably jumped your bones the moment the offer was on the table but /I’M/ not normal! I’m asexual so I just- I feel like you feel towards having sex with animals, or maybe not like animals, more like a spoon or something, not grossed out just not interested. Only for me it’s towards EVERYONE.”

He put a hand on the side of his head and sat there silently, processing, his form fading back into his natural one as he sat.

I probably broke his brain.

“We can still have sex if you want to, I mean just do what you like, it doesn’t really upset me or anything.” Had he been just a normal mortal man I probably wouldn’t have offered a second time, but then again he probably wouldn’t have noticed that I wasn’t enjoying myself as much as I could have been. I didn’t yet know if that was simply centuries of skill that was coming into play or something mystical. Either way I knew he needed the energy and if this was how he got it, after everything I'd done to him I personally would feel bad denying him if he needed it to live.

He looked at me in a confused and sort of put off manner.  
“By all the stars in the— Lovely why would I ever want to take my own pleasure out of your body if it does nothing for you? I know your kind sees mine as evil but I am no villainous beast such as that, to use a woman like some /thing/ in that-” His face flashed to one of sudden anger. “Have men used you like that before?”

I leaned back and broke eye contact giving a shrug.  
“Yes but, not since I realized I was asexual. I just assumed all my lovers before were bad, or that I was just a deep in the closet lesbian for a while. I actually haven’t bothered to try to have sex since I realized that I’m Ace. Haven’t really dated either. I mean- I’m okay with sex but I’m just as okay with not having sex so I guess I haven’t really cared to try and meet anyone.”

“Well I’m not- I wouldn’t ever want you to force yourself to do that. I don’t entirely understand this whole concept of ‘Asexual’ but if you don’t feel lusts or lose yourself to sexual wants of the flesh well then- I live only to bring you pleasure my Queen, and if this does not please you then it does not please me.”

That actually made me feel a lot better about being around him, one of the reasons I didn’t date was because far too often a prerequisite of meeting anyone was that they wanted to have sex, openly and didn’t much care if I wanted it or not. 

That Dan didn’t want to have sex if I didn’t want it actually made me even more okay with letting him use me if he needed to.

“Don’t you need to have sex to feed?”

“Not entirely. Sex is just easier to feed off of. It’s something I enjoy doing and humans tend to emotionally lose themselves to, however almost any particularity robust emotion I can sup on. I mean I don’t like the taste of all of them, sadness is like ashes and anger is too hot and bitter for my taste, upsets my stomach personally. But Sex? Love, lust, orgasm, joy, all of these are a sweeter nectar than even those candies you gave me. I may enjoy sex, feed on it, but I can taste when my partner is not enjoying themselves, or when there is no flow of emotions to feed on at all.”

I looked down at my hands now, feeling bad for wasting his time, for embarrassing myself like this.

“So I can’t help you get home can I?” 

He’d have to find someone else to have sex with, not that it bothered me although there was a slight flare of something, it wasn’t like he was my boyfriend and even if he was, I understood that if I ever dated an allosexual that I’d have to have a non-traditional type of relationship for them to be satisfied in ways that I wouldn’t want to always be available for.

These were conversations I’d given myself enough times already, concessions I was already prepared to make. I guess I just felt more useless now, I’d brought him here, I put him to work, and now I couldn’t even feed him. 

I knew I shouldn’t feel bad about that and yet I did.

“I never said that lovely.” He shifted closer tipping my chin up to have me look at him, to see the sincerity in his face. “All I need- All I want is to give you pleasure. No matter what it is Sweetness, what would give you satisfaction right now?”

“Cuddling.” My answer was almost immediate, just because I was asexual didn’t mean I didn’t like physical contact. Some asexuals didn’t like any contact, some were absolutely repulsed by the idea of sex or being in sexual situation, I was more bored and indifferent to it. 

But physical intimacy? I didn’t like it from everyone, and I didn’t get it very often, but when I met someone that I liked enough to want to touch and liked touching me in return? It was rare and exhilarating and deeply satisfying in a way you imagined sex was for allosexuals.

And feeling as weirdly rejected as I was right now, being held, returning to how we were earlier, just as we were waking up, wrapped up in his arms feeling warm and strangely safe?

Nothing would make me feel better than just that.

Dan tensed just a little, biting his lip, his smile getting more shy and his cheeks becoming a softly dusted pink, but he nodded, moving back onto the bed, arranging himself and the blankets, tugging at me to join him after I’d put my shorts and tank-top back on.

“Is this okay?” I had to ask since he kept giggling a little nervously, his tail slapping lightly against my leg twitching with some sort of excitement.

“It’s good, it’s very… I feel quite…” He giggled again. “This is a little intense for me to be honest.”

He was willing to do many sexual things, would not shy from some of the most shameful acts, and yet cuddling was making his heart beat fast and his body feel too hot.

But as he pulled her close and pressed his lips gently to her hair he could feel her body relax and smell the bubbling energies of contentment.

As he nuzzled closer I felt that strange tug again, a warm and cool flow from my skin to his.

“Are you?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Is it okay?”  
“More than okay.”  
“What’s it like?”

He didn’t have the words for it, not ones that I would understand, it wasn’t the sweetness or richness that he was used to but a different flavour, something new he’d never really tasted but delightful none the less. 

Like a hot home cooked stew on a cold day, like eating thanksgiving dinner with friends and family, like a relaxing picnic on a warm summers day, all things he never knew and had no words for.

“It’s wonderful.”


	6. Two-hand touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited December 2017

It wasn’t like we’d woken up early the first time around but wrapped up in Dan, the strange pull of energy between us, became even comfortable, enough that I dozed off, waking up when I felt the tug end but fading into a fresh nap as Dan snuggled even closer, tucking my head under his chin, clinging to me like a warm leech.

It wasn’t until my stomach set itself to firmly protest alongside my bladder that I finally had to force myself up and out of the bed.

“Hey earlier, when I was trying to explain how I am…You- Well... Why would you think you’re so ugly?” I asked coming out of the bathroom, my toilet contemplation being mostly around over-analyzing the morning. 

“Oh Sweetness, I know well enough that I may be fair enough of face to not offend but in form? I’ve the body of a stretched out paige-boy, nothing but knees and elbows.” He replied from where (I was surprised to see) he’d gotten up and was actually making the bed. Stopping his actions to look at me fully his smile was a little sad. “How could such a nubile beauty as yourself look upon me with anything but pity?”  
“You’re joking right?”  
“My Queen, I know I swagger like a rogue who has never been denied but really, amongst my kin I’m- Well I’m what would be considered the runt of the litter.”

“Seriously?” I honestly had a hard time believing that, sure he might be a little on the skinny side but was that considered so ugly amongst his kind?

“In sooth, yes.” Dan sighed with a dismissive tip of his shoulders, obviously this was something that he’d come to terms with over his life and I could understand that, knowing the feeling too well myself. But now he moved closer to me reaching out but stopping short of my face seeing how I turned my eyes away from him. 

“Why is it you shy away when I call you beautiful?”

“Because I’m not.”

I looked at him quickly, seeing a completely perplexed look on his face. I knew I wasn’t fishing for compliments, it was just true, and so someone telling me such a bold faced lie made me more uncomfortable than flattered.

Both of his hands were on my cheeks, turning my face up to look at him, his confusion hovering somewhere over angry disbelief.  
“Who has dared to say such lies to you that you could think such a thing? Look at you, you’re perfection!”

He spoke with such conviction I could almost believe him.  
“No, Dan I know I’m not. I’m- I’m short-”  
“-Adorable.” He injected.  
“-Fat”  
“You say this word as though it’s a bad thing.”  
“It is.”  
“In what world would such soft curves be wrong?”  
“In this world apparently.”

“No!” He sounded absolutely scandalized.  
“Yeah.”

He thought about that for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around it letting go of my face to put his hands to the sky like he was trying to grab an answer from the air.

“Wha- I- Do men prefer stronger women then?” He put one hand to his head tugging at his hair in thought. “Is that why you dress as a man? Are larger muscular- Masculine forms now what is in vogue instead of delighting in that which is soft and supple?”

“No- No unfortunately women like that also get a shitty deal too. Generally it’s skinny women I suppose, young girls with no marks of aging or well- Women who look as though their barely out of puberty is the thing these days.”

“I am… Deeply confused.” And from the look on his face slightly disturbed as well.

“Just a sec.” Going into my bag I pulled out a magazine my mother had sent with me. One of those regular women’s magazines filled with unneeded and unwanted advice about fashion, fad diets, and stupid exercises that didn’t really work to plump up some areas while slimming others, insisting I take it along so that maybe while I was working out here I could ‘lose a few pounds and find a man and finally be happy.’   
Her heart was in the right place if not her advice which tended to drive me insane and was why I was glad to live out in the middle of nowhere.

“Here, this is what is considered to be attractive.”

Dan took the magazine and sat down on the bed while he flipped through the pages, his brow furrowed with concern at the women in the pictures. 

“These poor things, is destitution considered attractive? What is the purpose of this? Is this some charity thing? Looking as though you are impoverished to prove your moral beauty? Like monks or-”

“No.” I cut him off, “Just being that skinny is what’s considered normal and like these women are just the base line of attractive, most of them aren’t even considered truly gorgeous just at best, pretty. And I’m not that so…” I put up my hands dismissing the thoughts, it was a long time ago that I stopped caring about my appearance. I’d decided that as long as I was healthy I didn’t care about being slender. Especially now since with accepting the house I’d essentially given up on the idea of being in any kind of relationship. 

If I’d ever meet anyone it certainly wouldn’t be based on my appearance.

“Hmn. What an odd turn this time has taken.”

I looked at him thinking, he was after all immortal I supposed historically it was always the unobtainable that had been considered attractive. Value throughout history was placed on rarity so 50 or 500 or 5,000 years ago having enough money to have enough food to be plump was rare, which would make those more Rubenesque forms like my own attractive. While comparatively these days most countries had enough of an abundance of fatty food filled with additives and high fructose syrups that did god knew what to our bodies, actual healthy food was more expensive making the slender appearance harder to achieve.

“But still it’s just not-“ Dan continued to mutter more to himself than ma waving a hand at one of the stick thin models photoshopped even smaller than she probably was in reality. “Not to say that they’re completely unappealing, I’m sure they’re wonderful women and more than deserving of loving attentions as all women are but still.” He shook his head. “I don’t think there’s an Incubus or Succubi in the land with a heart in their chest who would dare to feed off one of these poor lambs, a single night of passion and even the smallest of sips from them would drain what little energy they must have dry.”

“Speaking of that.” I changed the topic now moving around the room to get dressed again. While I could spend the entire day in bed since I had nothing else to do today, my schedule bumped up by a few days thanks to Dan, I didn’t really want to laze about the entire day. Being around another person kind of made me feel odd, in some ways it energized me while in other’s it did make me feel drained. I knew once Dan was gone that used energy would demand it's payment and hit me with an anti-social exhaustion lasting for weeks, but for now I wanted to do everything, which seemed strange since I thought he was supposed to be draining my energy. “What does you feeding off my energy exactly do to me?”

“Not much, possibly make you sleepy or hungry. If I were to be cruel and take a lot maybe your muscles would ache… Or if I were to be particularity kind they’d still ache but in a different way~” He looked up from the magazine to tease with a wink.

“But it’s not going to like, shorten my life or anything is it?”

“No, well no more than any other type of exercise would. I’ve always been under the impression that your physical body treats it the same as if you were to be running or swimming or some other activity. If I were to feed often and a lot you may find yourself wasting away, sickly and lethargic if you didn’t eat properly to make up for it. But I would never do that to you my Sweetness.”

“Why not?” I asked, waving your hands in a ‘no wait’ fashion as he gave me a shocked and slightly horrified look. “Not that I’d want you to, but I mean, I suppose mythical creatures like yourself tend to get a bit of a bad rap and really, your contract with me is flimsy at best so you could have drained me dry and gone home. I’m- I’m being racist, speciesist? right now aren’t I?”

“Yes, just a bit.” He said dryly at my realization that these questions were probably exceedingly rude. “But, you are correct, not all of those from my realm are as forgiving or gentle as I, and even amongst my kind I’m a bit of an odd duck but… Well there are many reasons that I do what I do.”

“Such as?” I pressed, I didn’t exactly want to make him angry, I knew he was certainly stronger than I was, and knowing he could forcibly suck my energy out of me did somewhat want me to know where his lines were.

“Well I’m not a bastardly cur to start, I love women so I would never intentionally harm one if I could help it. And I suppose I am more than a bit flattered someone as lovely as you would have summoned me, even though things have not been turning out to how I would expect or hope… It’s different but good!”   
Dan added the last part quickly realizing that I might take what he said as a slight towards my sexuality.   
“No one from my realm has been summoned in a very long time, not like we used to, and while it doesn’t harm us any to not be in this world it does make our world very… Stagnant. Humans are very bright and full and inventive and have a spark that our people just don’t have. And the food here is so much better. Why even though I would like to hoard each one of those sweets you gave for my contract to myself I can easily trade them to possibly start my own lesser court if I so desired. That I got to eat TWO of them all to myself? I will be the envy of many to the end of my days.”

“End of your days?” I caught onto that sitting down listening to him trying to build on what little I actually knew about him and his world. “So you’re not immortal?”

“Well, I am somewhat.” He sat with me his tone serious as he explained. “In this world this body, this form I’m holding, can be harmed enough to of course stop working. The physical manifestation of myself on your plane of reality is governed mostly by the laws of this realm and depending on how much energy I have if this form were to be destroyed I may not be able to get home from that point, so I would, I suppose, die. In my own world I can be consumed by those greater than me if I were to cross them, my energy would stop existing becoming a part of them so everything that is myself would be gone. And while over time those of my realm don’t pass from age, some of the greatly elders do forget to live and eventually will simply fade and cease to be. It’s one of the reasons why we bother to answer summons at all, coming here gives us a little boost of that spark humans so naturally have, we may be able to exist for eternity but we have nothing in us that naturally wills us to do so.”

I sat there for a moment thinking about what he said, an entire species of essentially energy based non-corporeal but sentient creatures that couldn’t innovate, create, move forward or change without outside influence.

“So it’s kind of a bonus for you to be here?” I asked hoping that what I was thinking was true so I could feel less bad about making him work for essentially peanuts. “I mean, I know having to work is annoying for you, but I mean that’s how it is for everyone, but in the end you are getting a type of wage for coming here?”

“Indeed, if we were not then our kind would never bother with yours. This world is harsh and hard and humans are equally so, but this world is also rich, and vibrant, the hardness gives it something which ours lacks. So coming here is a trade off, great deeds and powers given to humans in this world in exchange for the energy and ideas to gain great powers in our own world.”

“Oh good.” I sighed something in me that was wound tight relaxing a little.  
Dan’s head cocked to the side puzzled at my reaction.

“Oh well… I was feeling a little bad because I’ve been making you work so hard and then on top of that I can’t feed you because I don’t like sex-“

“Do not worry about that all Lovely!” He interrupted moving closer wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“-I was worried were getting a bum deal in all of this and I was taking advantage of you. I mean I still sort of feel like I am, and I don’t want to be that kind of a person, but if when you get back the exchange rate on you being here falls in your favour then maybe it’s okay if I don’t feel quite as bad?”

“Beautiful, Sweet Princess!” His small half hug turned into him clinging to me squeezing tight. “So kind and gentle, do not worry yourself for me Princess, simply being summoned gives me bragging rights, those tarts would have sustained my heart for centuries, the tale I bring back with me will be a hilarious yarn told until it is myth! That over all this you are a gentle soul who is kind beyond measure is more than enough that even though you still hold me for five more hours of such truly unorthodox work I feel no malice, and in sooth my Queen, I rather delight in being here.”

I pulled back from his hug enjoying the cuddle and while I still thought he spoke too much I was really starting to enjoy listening to his melodic voice, but I was surprised still.

“Really?” Despite everything he was okay with being here.

“By all the stars, may they burn me if I lie, you are very wonderful and this has been a very entertaining time for me Sweet Queen.”

“Even without sex?”

He made a soft noise and shrugged.   
“That would have been a fine wine to the feast you have already laid before me, but I can easily do without. Especially if said wine is replaced with that delicious Pepsi?” Dan smiled suggestively and leaned toward me, biting his lip and fluttering his eyes in silent begging making me laugh glad to be shrugging off the serious nature of our conversation.

“I see, well put some clothes on and we’ll go get you some more Pepsi.”  
“Yesssss”  
“But you have to drink some water today too. I don’t want you getting all stiff again.”  
“Ugh such a harsh and demanding Queen you are.” He moaned in jest.

The harsh Queen threw the Knave’s pants at his head much to their amusement.

Demanding indeed.


	7. I want to be down in your South Seas

Taking Dan into town, now that he had the energy to sustain his glamour and hide his horns and tail once more, you made a stop at a second hand clothing store so he could get some things. He insisted on staying until his final five hours were complete but you honestly had no work for him to do for the rest of the day, possibly a few days since you’d originally expected to take the better part of a week to clear the house yourself and he’d made short work of that. 

While he went through the store you called the people you needed to come look at the house to see if they could come earlier. Once the inspection was done then it was a matter of seeing exactly what work neieded to be done and then, if the house was livable or had minimal amount of repairs needing to be done to it then you could head home, pack up your own things, come back and move in.   
Dan would easily get his 5 hours in then…

But, if there was too much work to be done then you weren’t sure, too many things were up in the air in that case. Would you try to sell the house? Could you get the repairs done? Would they be easy enough that maybe you could do them yourself or would you have to hire a team? Maybe you could contract Dan and have him recommend some other demons or fey or whatever to do the work at a cheaper rate than human contractors since there was no way you could afford a full renovation of the house on your budget.

Either one would work but you felt like you might need to convince Dan to go home in the meantime…

Looking up you see him prancing back toward you now wearing a ridiculous blue spandex outfit with a silk robe over top striking a pose with a big grin on his face making you start laughing just as your contractor picks up the phone. Apologizing to the woman on the phone you mouth a ‘No’ at Dan trying to keep your face stern while he pouts and makes begging motions but you point back at the changing room and he sulks off. 

Once you’re off the phone he’s thankfully selected a random assortment of t-shirts and has found a few pairs of jeans that actually fit him, although you need to get a belt for him as well since “fit” was a loose sense of the word and a looser sense of the waistband on these jeans.   
You were lucky he was generally trustworthy to pick out decent clothing (although his first attempt had worried you) since picking out shoes for him was a nightmare. He didn’t want them and didn’t like them and the shop had very few in his size to begin with. They were pricier than what you wanted to spend but after all the work he’d done and was going to do you felt you had no room to complain about the amount of cash you had to shell out for the blue sneakers he finally agreed to. He might have preferred to go barefoot but he’d told you his mortal body in this realm was bound to the biological rules of it and the last thing you needed was for him to get gangrene from stepping on something outside.

Convincing him underwear were a thing he should consider wearing was too much for one day so you gave up bothering him about it and instead took him for lunch.

The whole day felt like a cross between a date and back-to-school shopping with a child. How enamoured he could be over things but how stubborn he could be as well. He was quick to sense and soothe your frustrations with jokes and stories, little hugs when you would accept them or holding your hand when he stayed at your side long enough to grasp it or needed to drag you along with him, a million questions on his lips about what things were, how they worked, why they were that way.  
He raved about how good the food was and you convinced him to try sparkling water which, while probably not as good as just regular water, was at least a step up from just drinking soda all the time.

As the day went on and you both explored the town he started to slow down, shying slightly closer to you, smiling and chatting with strangers a little less, you could tell he was getting overwhelmed. You were too, he’d been shielding you from the bulk of human interactions, chatting up the shop clerks and wait staff so you didn’t have to. You’d gone slightly quiet right after the initial phone call hours ago, that he was slipping into longer lapses of silence himself just gave you the excuse you’d already wanted.

“Do you want to go back to the motel?”  
“Ooh trying to get me alone to yourself.” He put a hand on your hip to pull you in while teasing but followed up with a “Yes please~”

Returning to the motel was almost a repeat of the day before, as soon as you were in the door he was facedown on the bed with a tired groan. This time he didn’t immediately pass out, instead kicking at his feet to get off the shoes and sitting up on his knees to pull off his jacket and shirt, shaking his head and body like a dog you could see the glamour physically sliding off of him before he flopped bonelessly back onto the mattress. 

You snorted at him and organized around him to put his things “away” stopping to stare at his back once you were done.

His tail was out, you could tell he wasn’t asleep since it was curling and moving around like a cats tail, the scales on it were a dusty bronze, a splash of the same scaling along the small of his back that faded into flesh except around his shoulder blades where the scales reappeared. Joining him on the bed, looking but not touching you really stared at him now, seeing the little dry patches of skin and scale on his shoulders, how the hair on the tip of his tail matched the colour on his head if not the frazzled consistency. 

“Can I touch you?”  
“You need to ask?” He sounded amused that you would bother to get permission but shuffled closer until one of his horns brushed against your leg. 

Starting there you delicately traced the horn, feeling the ridges of it, wondering how fast it grew, that if you counted the rings would you be able to learn his age? He rumbled like a cat, his tail flicking a little more as your fingers reached the base and massaged, feeling around the edge of where horn met the flesh of his skull, tugging accidentally at a tangle he made a noise.  
“Sorry.”  
“No, not a bad thing. Somewhat like my hair getting a little pulled but it’s no place you want to go.”  
“… Sorry.”  
“Sshh no apologies for being, more scratching, less sorries.” He mumbled returning to that pleased rumble as you kept scratching at his head, placing a palm on his back to feel the vibration of his purr fascinated at how different he was in texture. 

Somewhere a very rational part of your brain was recoiling at all of this, magic and spells, demon deals and a creature who was a kinder man then any that you’d met.

“Ohh oh right there, harder~” His back rippled as you scratched lightly along the scaling on his spine. “Less fingers more nails, right there, up, down, fffuuucckk” 

Your finger caught the edge of his scales to skin and a thin layer of scales, much like how a snake shed it’s skin, lifted up like peeling glue off your fingers when you were in grade school.

“Oh… Um this isn’t a bad thing is it?” Certainly it was just a little gross but you didn’t want to have accidentally hurt him.  
“Mn?” With a grunt he sat up to look at the strip of skin you’d pulled. “Oh no, that’s been bothering me for a while now, it’s a kindness to have it gone. May I?” He took the skin from you and with a look of concentration blew on it, it suddenly smouldered, embers licking over it and quickly was eaten to nothing.

Looking at him, somewhat expecting an explanation he just stared back offering none, instead getting up enough to knock you over so he could use you as a pillow sweetly begging you to continue to pet him. 

Trailing fingers from his skull down his spine you scratched, pet, rubbed, and explored his body until you felt like you had tactile familiarity with it, no longer new but a comfort to run your hands over him, his rumbling vibration a soothing sound gently coaxing you to doze alongside him a worrisome emotion starting to develop in your chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be my last chapter for a few days as I've got a few things happening this weekend. Check out the Choose your own Grumpventure and vote on where you'd like to go in the story. I'm kinda keen on starting that one up but so far I only have two votes both choosing different things so I need some tie-breakers.


	8. I'll bet you'll feel nuts

“So what’s the plan today?”

Dan was sitting cross legged on the bed, pants on but shirt still off, tail wiggling happily with a soft “paf paf” against the mattress, watching you while you got dressed. 

He’d already seen you naked, so while you still felt a little shy, not quite comfortable in your own exposed body, it did stroke your ego slightly at how his eyes watched your every movement, the soft flush on his cheeks and slightly dopey expression he had while he did. 

You might not have liked the look of yourself but that was years of careful social conditioning by the media at work. He liked how you looked and in this moment that was all that mattered.

“Well,” You paused pulling a t-shirt over your head ending his peep-show. “That depends entirely on what you want to do. You could stay here and watch TV all day if you want, or I could take you to the library or mall or something and you can just wander around, or you could come with me and be bored arm candy while I walk through the house with the inspector to see what work needs to be done. I’ve been telling you these next few weeks are going to be boring so I mean if you want to go back home…”

“Trust me when I tell you that even your dullest day here is infinitely more exciting than what I have waiting for me back home.” He says with a small huff and a grumble as you throw one of his new shirts at him.

“What /do/ you have waiting for you at home?”  
“I am one of the many entertainments of one of the lesser Vernal courts. Most of my day is spent standing around trying to think of witty things to say or new songs to sing or interesting embellishments to put upon stories in order to entertain whomever requests my presence. Although most of the time those who ask for me don’t always want me to speak so my attempts to stay sharp in the waiting time tend to be redundant.” He sounded a little bored and a little frustrated while describing his job.

“Do you not like it?”  
“Eeh.” He shrugged. “I’ve done worse before getting to where I am, but our world is mild and comfortable and dull. I can literally spend a decade of your time going to court every day sitting in the same gilded room and never be called upon and still feel exhausted every night going home. In comparison? Simply sitting by the window here watching the clouds pass by is more fascinating than going home.”  
“Why not do something else then?”  
“Because there’s not much better for me. I on occasion still go down to the Dens to remind myself of what I left behind. But I have not the skill to get to any higher courts or to even switch courts… Although when I do return after my contract is finished I may be able to switch to the Summer court what with the tales I will have from this world and how coveted they will be. But still, the longer I am here, the more I will have to tell, the more I have to tell, the more I will be in demand upon return. Given enough time here I could be busy until the next century.”

It was a little boggling to think both of how boring that must all be and how in a century your would will have astronomically changed while he would be telling the same dull story of how he had to clean out a closet and didn’t even get laid for it.

The tragedy of it was enough that you approached him silently and embraced him, allowing his face to rest tenderly on your bosom while he put his arms around your waist having no complaints about any physical contact you might feel like initiating, a pity hug was still a hug. 

“So what /do/ you want to do today?”  
“Oh I can think of a few things.” He teased snuggling closer so you tugged at his hair as an ineffective punishment.  
“I mean of the three choices. Here, town, or with me?”  
“I want to stay with you.” 

It was strange, the warm explosion of contentment and affection at that answer. Quickly you battered it down, pulling away from him to finish your morning routine. “Well then, we’d better get ready to go!” 

Darting away you moved to the bathroom to brush your teeth and debate makeup while you stood in the mirror. Your skin had been pretty good lately, no particular spots to blot out, you could do a little something to fancy up but if Dan was there it wasn’t like the inspector needed to be impressed and you’d foregone makeup every other day so it wasn’t like you needed to impress Dan. 

Dan followed you into the bathroom and looked at some of your things on the counter.

“Whats this?”  
“ooffaste…” You spat and repeat “Toothpaste.”  
He’d already pulled off the cap and was sniffing at it before you said ‘toothpaste’  
“Oh! Might I use some as well?”  
“You… Haven’t brushed your teeth since you’ve been here?”  
Of course he hadn’t, you hadn’t thought to give him a toothbrush.

“Well I frayed a twig the first night but I’m more partial to the horsehair brushes.”

Your brain stuttered but reminded you that even his most basic technological knowledge had to be at minimum 200 years old.

“Uh we just have synthetic plastic brushes now. I’ve got an extra…” You’d used the extra one already, forgetting you brought yours from home, buying a new one, using it and then finding the older one, so it was mostly new and somehow you doubted he’d notice nor mind. 

He watched you a little at first, seeing how you were brushing your teeth and mimicking your motions making a little concerned face possibly at the taste of the toothpaste or maybe how the bristles were different than what he was used to. Probably the latter since when he spat his foam was a bloody pink, gum’s unused to the abuse. Your guess was that horsehair brushes were much softer than synthetic plastic but you couldn’t imagine what sort of oral hygiene something that was immortal really needed other than possibly liking the taste of having a clean minty mouth.

Still, seeing the blood you didn’t comment on it directly, but the thought that it would be quite a while before you felt comfortable ever kissing him immediately came to mind.

Getting out to the house Dan had a lot of questions regarding what exactly you were doing, what kind of updates your house needed, what exactly that sort of technology was, why you needed someone else to tell you these things. As you waited for the inspector to arrive his questions became less practical and more conversational, asking about stories of your childhood, the followup questions from even a few small stories took up the most time, needing to explain a lot of background to things since they involved aspects of this new world he was completely unfamiliar with, it was more than enough to fill the time as you waited for the inspector to arrive.

Dan in a show of perfect behaviour stayed quiet while the two of you milled around watching the man going through the house.

“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.” The guy came out and looked right at Dan addressing him instead of you.  
Your eyes narrowed slightly, not terribly surprised that he would assume Dan was the homeowner and not you, but still not impressed at all by it.  
“Um…” Dan gave you a bit of a panicked look while the man continued talking.

“The house was fitted for electricity and is on a grid somewhere but I’m not sure were the power source is connecting from which means we might have to gut it all anyway to see how the wiring was done since it’s gotta be more than 50 years old. Same goes for the water and sewage, it’s running and you’re on well water and a septic but that tank is gonna have to be dug up after this much time not being cared for.”  
“What was the good news?” You put in as he keeps looking at Dan expecting him to say something, surprised instead that it’s you who finally speaks up.  
“Oh um.” Now he finally looks at you. “Well I suppose you could live here while the work is being done. Foundation is solid and the general condition of the place is good but you’d be taking a chance on the toilets backing up or the water not being drinkable.”

“Or a fire if the wiring has been chewed on, yeah ok so hypothetically livable but potentially a deathtrap?”  
“Um…” He looked again at Dan, you had a feeling like renovating the house was what he wanted you to do, as it would mean he would probably be getting a lot of money out of you to do it. You had zero intention of letting him get a dime off you considering what he was doing right now, it pissed you off when people did this.

Dan could feel your frustration rolling in waves for all your face and posture stayed pleasant. He smiled at the man and shrugged his shoulders “Don’t look at me I didn’t understand anything you said, and it’s her house not mine. I’m just here to be the arm-candy.“

The inspectors eyes narrowed at Dan’s silly attitude and friendly grin before they dragged back to you.  
“Well thank you for your time and opinion I will certainly be weighing my options.”  
Cold as ice the man was able to pick up that you might have been less than pleased and took this as his cue to hand you the paperwork from his walkthrough and take his leave. 

Standing on the front porch waiting for him to drive out of sight you made the lightest of growling noises in the back of your throat as you looked over the paperwork and price estimates for the work that was recommended to be done. The tank would need to be located and dug up and replaced, the well would have to basically go through the same treatment, all the walls would have to be torn up to get at the wiring…  
You tensed as Dan put his hands around your waist almost ready to tell him to fuck off when his lips lightly touched the back of your neck, but there was a strange tug to your mind, not like the hot-cool flow of energy but more like the feeling of thinking there was an extra step on some stairs and overstepping. A hiccup in existence and instantly it was like all that anger and worry was just gone, leaving your mind clear and focused. A plan of attack bobbed to the surface the moment those frustrated clouds cleared.

Still you pulled away, maybe a little more harshly than you’d meant to since Dan looked a little worried.

“What did you do?”  
“You were just so frustrated and the emotions were just ramping more and more so I just… Siphoned them off a little.” He took his own step back from you looking like a kicked dog. “I’m sorry, was that too much?”  
“No it’s…” It was weird to be honest, for your feelings to just be pulled out of you and dampened like that. You could feel them there, an ember of fiery anger that could easily be pulled back and rekindled into the building inferno it was just a few second ago. But why would you want that?  
“It’s fine I’m actually thinking more clearly. But… Ask before you do something like that again.”

You wonder if it worked for depression or anxiety as well.  
You wondered how it tasted.

He still looked uncomfortable as you’d gone silent, staring at him absentmindedly while you pondered quite a few things, your mind finally sliding back into the present and the task at hand and that for your plot to work Dan being uncomfortable was the opposite of where you wanted him to be.  
You needed to butter him up.

“Well, nothing else to be done here today. Do you want to go out for dinner or just eat in our room?”  
He still looked worried even though you were smiling now, maybe not entirely trusting that you were entirely okay with everything that had just taken place.  
“Room please.” You couldn’t tell if he was picking something you’d like or it was what he actually wanted to do. But you’d do that anyway, it was somewhat your preference right now as well.

“Anything you want to eat?”  
“That sweet chicken stuff you had the first night was really nice.”  
“Chinese food it is.”  
He seemed a little confused at that and you could hear him mumbling more to himself than you. “That’s… Not what I remember Chinese food as.” 

As you drove back you explained to him how ‘American Chinese’ food had developed and that there was the possibility the food he remembered however-long-ago he had visited China, which then dissolved into the question of where on the planet they were currently which by the time you got back into town you were so in depth with American history and his shock at the mass genocide of many of the native people and the restructure of the whole continent that the both of you had essentially forgotten about dinner. 

It was a few minutes after you’d settled back at the room that your stomach grumbled, more famished than you’d expected, and he reminded you that you’d both forgotten to get food, a fact you set out quickly to remedy. 

"Holy shit are you okay?" You'd come back to the hotel with dinner to find Dan sitting on the edge of the bed sobbing his eyes out. Dropping the takeout bags on the table you rushed over to his outstretched arms giving him the hug he clearly needed. 

"Shh it's ok what happened?"  
"Th-the poor boy, the poor boy just wanted to go h-home and the Goblin king h-hurt him so and h-he was crying-" Dan got about that far before he started crying afresh himself. 

You had no idea what he was talking about. When you'd left hardly 30 minutes ago you’d insisted he could stay since he’d dropped his glamour already and you kind of had a feeling that took a lot for him to maintain. Setting him up he'd been laying on the bed just listening to music on your phone, entranced by the technology that allowed him to access billions of songs spanning centuries with such a small device. Where did this goblin king come...

Then you remembered you had some old opera music on your phone filled with tragedy and heartbreak assuming someone understood the language and themes they were singing about. 

Of course Dan would. 

"Oh Jeeze... It's ok, it's ok it's just a song"  
"A-and the baby given to the moon-" He kept explaining some of the songs, a few stories you'd known but a few you had not known each one intensely breaking his heart. 

It took a moment for you to understand why something as simple as a song could affect him so much.

Unlike your world where you were so saturated in media where your heart had hardened to the trickery and heartbreak of thousands of stories like this or worse, his was a world with very limited media, in fact you'd wager most of their media was still in the form of books, plays, maybe old records but still most things would be oral history depending on other people within his world to recreate those stories via dynamic tellings or a clear voice to recreate a song. 

How else would Dan be able to hold employment as one of many entertainers for one of many courts. He was the human, or really Incubus, equivalent of renting a video. 

Something as intense as a whole orchestra pumped directly into his ears as clear as if he were in the audience with a deeply distressing tale of terror and woe, let alone a top 10 list of them one after another? 

You would have probably hurt his heart less if you'd killed a box of puppies in front of him. 

"Oh Danny" You sighed petting at his hair making soft sounds at him until his arms loosened from their desperate clinging and his tears fell away into wet sniffles. "I think that's a bit too much music for you tonight. We'll..."

TV was certainly out of the question. You hadn't put it on for him yet and you could only imagine the stimulation of it would crush his fragile psyche, so unused to such realistic depictions and intensity of tales.   
“-I’ll read to you after we eat."  
"A happy story?"  
You'd have to download something onto your kindle but-  
"Yes a happy story."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering the song Dan was listening to was "Figlio Perduto"  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuo6PUeyHmA  
> It's a sad song about a boy getting abused by the "Elf King" and begging for his father to save him.  
> This song came to me recently when I was watching Mr. Robot. when the bad guy gets introduced I INSTANTLY RECOGNIZED THIS SONG and was like "OH SHIT THAT'S SOME HEAVY HANDED FORESHADOWING" assuming anyone knows the song.
> 
> The second song was Hijo de la Luna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qY_wADgvo8 a song about a woman who wanted a particular lover but in exchange the moon wanted her first born child in exchange, the woman agreed but when her child was born it was born albino as part of the agreement. The husband killed the woman believing she'd cheated on him and abandoned the child in the woods.
> 
> SAD SONGS DAN GOT HIT WITH ALL THOSE FEELS.


	9. Love, the kind you clean up with a mop and bucket

It had taken three tellings of the Very Hungry Caterpillar and two tales of Winnie the Pooh for Dan to finally fall into a fitful sleep and he was already up sitting at the table staring out into the parking lot when you awoke.

“You okay?” 

He turned to look at you, the smile on his face a little melancholy, but he nodded before turning back to keep watching the cars and the clouds pass by. 

Was it possible for him to get emotionally ill from feeding off you?  
Maybe the music had gotten to him more than you thought.  
If his world was as dull and monotonous as he’d explained maybe he was just too overstimulated and now the honeymoon phase of being summoned here was over and he’d fallen into the homesick crash. This new world was a lot to take.

You watched him, thinking.

“Do you want to join me in the shower?”

It took a moment before his head turned, his smile a little puzzled like he might have heard you wrong.   
“What?”  
“Do you want to join me in the shower.”  
“Yes! I mean is it okay? Do you want to…?”   
“Probably no sex. I dunno, I wanna wash your hair.”  
His face turned bright red and he looked away tensing making you wonder if you’d said something wrong or rude.  
“O-okay!” His voice cracked a little, his tail twitching in a way that you thought was positive. He certainly was perking up from the lethargic appearance he had a few moments earlier. 

Following you into the bathroom he bit his lip and looked still flushed and a little awkward, more like a gawky teen than a few thousand year old sex demon. He wasn’t the first person you’d taken a shower with, you’d played sports so locker rooms full of naked towel snapping girls had never phased you and when you’d dated cramped apartment showers or larger house tubs were occupied with the same acts of being with someone you cared about, enjoying the slick feeling of their skin and the mutually shared space.

He followed you under the spray, still pink in the cheeks, taking shy glances at your body, obviously more than slightly aroused. A little wash of guilt passed over you, social conditioning telling you that you were cruel to him by teasing him like this and sexually denying him but you shoved that away. Dan had made it clear that if you weren’t 100% behind having sex he wouldn’t want that from you anyway.

You desperately wished that the world could untangle sensuality and affection, from two people needing to grind their genitalia together. 

Reaching up you pulled Dan’s face down to give him a peck on the lips, grinning at the slightly startled yet pleased look on his face, but you weren’t going anywhere he was quite expecting even when you gave him the command to kneel which made him arch his eyebrow and smirk as he dropped down in front of you clearly thinking this was going in a direction it was not. 

He gave an understanding little “Ah” when you made him turn around so his back was toward you.

While you couldn’t see it Dan bit his lip in embarrassed pleasure when your hands tugged through his hair. Grabbing hold of his tail to keep it from thumping against the side of the tub he couldn’t stop the rumbling purr coming from deep inside his chest as your fingers continued to comb conditioner through his curly tangles. He worked hard to keep his pleased moans to a minimum while you massaged around his horns not really able to hide the obvious level of just how much he was enjoying this but not wanting to do anything that would make you uncomfortable. 

He squeezed his tail, the pain of it just adding to the jolts of pleasure causing his dick to harden and twitch. In part he wanted you to stop, in part he wanted this to never stop.  
It was heaven and hell all rolled into one.

As you replaced the first round of conditioner with soap he jerked away from your scrubbing fingers, a sudden, rough, growled. “You need to stop /now/ please.”  
Your hands pulled off his head. “Did I hurt you?”  
“Oh my sweet, naive- No.”  
“… Oh… Is it because you’re aroused?”  
His silence was enough of an answer.

Pulling back his head by his horns he made a strangled noise as you did, startled more than pained especially when you planted a kiss on his forehead.   
“I’m not disgusted or disturbed by the fact that you react like this, you’re a sexual being and that’s okay. I’m not interested but I am aware and not offended by it.”   
With his head tilted back your fingers moved back to the base of his horns massaging at his scalp once more, making his eyelids flutter with pleasure.   
“If you want to have sex we can, I like you well enough it doesn’t bother me. If you want to just touch yourself you can, it is completely fine by me as well.”  
“No I-” His voice was a breathy sigh as he turned slightly to lean his head against you, his horn poking a little uncomfortably into your breast. “I’m supposed to please you, not the other way around.”   
“Whatever would please you, pleases me too. You’re not- I know I summoned you here but I want you to know you’re not a slave or servant or under contract to do anything with me that you don’t want to. I just… I like you so I want you to be happy too.”

He pulled back looking up at you, the mild disbelief in his face apparent and making you sad that he couldn’t believe what you were saying and was looking for the trick or joke in your words. Hesitantly, like he wasn’t sure about himself he reached up and you allowed him to guide you closer, lips softly meeting.

“Is this okay?” He whispered between each kiss as his mouth trailed down to your neck sipping at the water there which for once tasted sweet to him.   
“Yeah, it’s nice.” It was always hard to explain, where the line of desire was, how certain things could be okay and then others that were so similar not. How there could be pleasure at times with no craving for more or even a repetition of them.   
So you let his free hand move along your body and his lips explore, finding more delight in how he would draw back every time he felt you tense even slightly, less discovering erogenous areas to give you pleasure and more discovering the lines on your skin where you just did not care to be touched. 

Returning your hands to his head he nuzzled his face into the valley of your breasts, no longer holding back the pleased moan while your fingers massaged along his scalp, now eagerly tilting his head giving breathy, begging, “There, please, harder”

You were kind of glad that it didn’t take very long, that he’d been aroused enough he didn’t feel like drawing anything out longer. A shudder, a moan, a feeling of something warm that certainly wasn’t water hitting your leg. Dan leaned his weight slightly against you while he took a few shuddering breaths, calming down. 

“Was that okay?”  
Arms wrapped around your waist and his purr echoed twice as loud as before, tail thumping a pleased rhythm against the floor of the tub.  
“My sweetest Queen it was wonderful.”

—

You’d finished washing his hair, scrubbing at his scales on his back until they gleamed, allowing him to do the same to you, feeling the same pampered closeness. But still your plan was to treat him today so you were not yet finished.

“I am a spoilt knave undeserving of such care my loving Queen.” Dan sighed as after the shower you’d instructed him to lay on the bed where you massaged some orange oil you liked to use on your own dry skin at times onto his back to sooth the flaking patches between skin and scale. “You are ruining me, you are ruining me for all others, I will become a jealous devil undeserving and craving your attention for all eternity ah my Queen you damn my heart.”

“Does that mean you want me to stop?” You asked pausing in your affections. 

“No!” He switched his song quickly. “If this sweetness is your torture for me I will take these soft lashes like the most desperate of masochists.”

Snorting you continued the massage until the oil had absorbed and his skin was soft and supple to the touch.

"Are you awake?" Leaning down you pressed a kiss to the joint where his neck met his back and continued to lay there on top of him feeling the vibration of his purr that was softer and slower than before.   
Dan took a deep breath, mumbling a deeply unconvincing "Yes my Sweet? What did you say?"

"Nothing, well actually. I do still need to go out today. Would you like to come with me? Or would you rather stay here?"  
"Mmm" You felt the muscled in his back rippling as he stretched under you and thought about it. "I am sleepy but I am also hungry. Is one of these things breakfast?"    
“Indeed it would be. Well, more lunch by now but food will be gotten. I think I’m going to find a grocery store too, get some things so that we’re not eating out all the time. Breakfast, Bookstore, Gas, and Grocery, then a stop back over at the house quite possibly.”  
“Well then-“

With a grunt he pushed himself up with you still on him, an impressive show of strength since you knew how much you weighed and he certainly didn’t look like the type of person who would find heavy lifting all that easy. But he had surprised you quite a lot with how much he could carry the first day you had met so it was a reminder not to judge him by his looks. 

Giggling as he then tipped to knock you off him he dipped down over you with a soft smile  
“May I have a kiss Lovely?”  
A heat rose in your cheeks and he met your lips pulling the breath out of you making you feel a bit dizzy from it.

You weren’t entirely sure how much of that was him taking a sip of energy and how much of that was just you letting your emotions run a little wild but for all that the thumping of your heart in your ears calmed a little from the pull of heat and the push of cool at his touch you didn’t feel like he’d siphoned off any of those emotions, but maybe he did considering the flush on his face as he pulled back.

You both broke eye contact at about the same time, even without clothes it was suddenly very warm in the room but it didn’t matter because as you said in a voice that was maybe a little TOO cheery “Gotta get going!” 

Dan ran his hands through his hair, the horns disappearing into a tangle of fluff, his tail slapped against his leg twice and then just as suddenly wasn’t there which allowed him to put on the clothing you tossed in his direction as you moved to put on your own. 

You weren’t going to say anything, especially if he wasn’t either. 

You knew.  
He knew.  
You knew that he knew. 

Which emotion did he take, the affection or your fear of it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader-chan is the one with the commitment issues here!   
> Not that she's against it but while the culture shock is getting to Dan the speed of Reader's feelings is getting to her. Granted it is a bit of a side effect of being around an Incubus, after all they are designed to inspire lust and desire so what does that inspire in someone who doesn't get those lusty feelings?   
> Squishes.  
> She's got the biggest, hardest squish on Dan that she's ever had in her life and barely knows what to do with it because she's never had a healthy relationship that totally respected her Asexuality. And that Dan is totally willing to do so is just making that squish all the harder to deal with.
> 
> Which is going to make what she'll do next even harder on the both of them...
> 
> DUN DUN DUUUNNN WHAT COULD IT BE?


	10. Chapter 10

The plan was in place although the order changed.  
Gas, Breakfast, Grocery and the Bookstore would be the last stop. You knew what you needed from there and it was closer to the hotel than the grocery store so there was no need to double back. 

After food with a fresh shot of energy in him Dan had followed next to you happily pushing a cart like it was a toy car, a little surprised by the lack of shopkeepers in the store muttering slightly to you and more to himself that he could rob the place blind and no one would know. Not sure how to go about explaining the idea of security cameras you just smiled and nodded and hoped he didn’t actually try to shoplift anything.

Of course the stop here wasn’t just for fruit and vegetables and things to make sandwiches.

Still a little guilty over tricking him to work so hard and sign into a contract with a small bag of candy you were going to make sure he knew not to sell himself so cheap next time by showing him the Candy Isle.

“Am I in heaven or hell?”  
“You can pick one.”  
Dan made a deeply undignified sound and hugged you excitedly before freezing and turning to you with a frightfully serious look on his face.   
“Does this add to my contract?”  
“No, it’s a gift.”

He gave you a look like he was about to burst into tears, biting his lip as it began to quiver and turning his head toward the treats so you wouldn’t see his face any longer.

You were starting to get an idea that was not very nice about how he was most likely treated back in his world. That praise and gifts and affection that were given freely were somewhat rare to come by, maybe just for him but possibly for everyone there? It still stuck with you how he’d said he wasn’t considered attractive by Incubus standards. 

It made you want to lavish him with care, part so you could see those moments where his face went red, where he looked at you with such genuine glee, so that those rare moments where he considered you with mistrustfulness would forever disappear…  
But also in particular you were trying to butter him up, for a few different reasons. 

It took him a while to pick out which treat he wanted, somewhat overwhelmed by the choices and having no idea what most of them were he carefully went down and back up the isle while you checked messages on your phone until he came back and simply asked which ones were the skittles and when he realized they came in multiple sizes which one was okay for him to choose. 

“I said it was okay to pick one so any size you like is fine.”  
“I… I…” His hand hovered shaking.   
There was the 54oz bag, the regular sized bag, the large back with smaller fun sized bags in it, the mixed fun bag with different types of skittles, the other types of skittles…

“Oh hey, hey it’s okay, it’s okay, do you want me to pick for you?”   
It took you a moment to realize that he’d started crying, pulling his hair a little in front of his eyes to cover his emotions he just nodded letting you pick the halloween pack for him and following you quietly back to the cart to leave.

“I’m sorry.” Dan whispered at you once you were back in your car.   
“Hey, it’s okay.” You rested your hand palm up on the middle part of the truck seat between you, letting him choose to lace his fingers with yours and squeeze. “Everything here is a big change for you I know and I overwhelmed you. I’m the one who should be sorry, I knew that you were starting to get a bit of culture shock from everything, I should have known better.”

He took a breath like he was going to speak, but just let it out pulling your hand close to press his lips against the knuckles until he’d calmed enough to let go. 

“When was the last time you were in… This world?” You asked once you could start driving again.  
“I don’t know.” He answered softly letting the truck go quiet before he continued. “I don’t know human calendar systems that well, they’re different from place to place. I was in a city called Paris, they were constructing some kind of tower at the time in the middle of the city. A few demons were contracted to help with it and I was a bit of an accidental summon so I didn’t get to stick around for very long. I got a Madeleine just for answering the summons though… Do those still exist?”  
“Madeleines or Paris? Yes to both” You were thinking of a large tower in Paris, was that during the construction of the Eiffel Tower?  
You had…  
No idea when that was built.  
But that’s what wikipedia was for.

“Before that?”  
He said the name of someplace you didn’t understand but continued “They didn’t mind how thin I was, apparently that was an attractive feature back then although more for women then men, I had to glamour myself shorter and with no facial hair because they didn’t like that very much. I got Chongyang Gao, quite a few of them since it was a festival at the time and they really wanted to be on my good side. I was sent to seduce a sorceress to get her to give some important lord a cure for whatever was making him sick. She was sharp, took a while to get her to tell me what was happening, in the end his problem was he was being poisoned by his daughters and the sorceress had been helping the daughters the whole time so that was that. I got even more treats after he died before they sent me back.”

You pulled into the bookstore and sat there a moment longer as he finished his story. One day you really wanted to hear his whole life story, all the little details of everything he’d done. Maybe see if you could line up the moments in history, wondering if he’d tipped the scales of major events at any point. 

It was a little weird to keep reminding yourself that he was a few hundred if not thousands of years old. Especially when he was someone who would cry in a candy isle because there were too many choices.

“Do you want to come in? It’s just books and I don’t think I’ll be that long.”  
He bit his lip looking at the store front, a determined look on his face as he nodded wanting to join you. 

You knew what you were after, not sure if it would be helpful at all but it might. Dan followed close behind you but started straying just a little once you found your section and were going through to find the right book.

It took you longer than you’d thought but you picked out what you wanted and made your way over to him, easily spotting him in the small store as he’d wandered over to the kids section and was looking at books.

Sort of.

He had a young reader novella with pictures and was holding it maybe a handspan from his face, you could see his lips moving and his brow furrowed.

“Can you… Read?”  
You jumped a little when he responded a tad harshly “Yes I can read!” Snapping the book he was looking at shut and putting it back. “I just don’t like to.”

That was very defensive.

“Can you read that?” Pointing to a poster across the room he looked at it and squinted.  
“Reading… Is… Rad?” When you gave a little nod he sniffed and stuck out his chin proudly. “See I can read just fine.”  
“Are the words fuzzy and does it hurt your eyes to read?”  
“Well… I’m just not built to be the scholarly type.”   
He was getting agitated, even you could tell but still, it was pretty obvious.

“You need glasses.”  
“I do not!”  
“I think you do.”  
He bristled, jaw clenching, staring you down. You actually backed up a step suddenly a little scared, never having seen him even remotely angry. 

“I will meet you outside.” 

And with that he was gone.

Anger hit you first, biting the inside of your cheek to stay in check while you went up to the counter to buy your books. How dare he get mad at you just because you pointed out he might need glasses? What the fuck was his problem getting all huffy about it?

You dawdled after, looking at some of the books, watching him while he leaned against the car, arms crossed still having a little tiff himself. 

Guilt hit you next. You weren’t really the type to stay angry at anyone for long and there was the bad habit of blaming yourself for everything that people did anyway. You’d been too pushy, he was overwhelmed already, he said he just didn’t like reading and you’d insulted him by asking if he even knew how. He clearly thought you had been making fun of him and you saw him getting upset but kept pushing it.  
Guilt burned into a ball of depression as you let your body run on numb autopilot while your mind kept reminding you that essentially he was just a paid boyfriend for the week and once his time was up he’d be done with you no matter how nice you were being. 

He wasn’t there because he wanted to be, he was there because you’d paid him.  
No wonder he was mad, you were taking up a lot of his time already.

Coming out of the shop you didn’t look at him, not wanting to set yourself off, needing to keep a careful shield up. It was silent the entire trip back to the hotel but you could feel him looking at you while you drove. 

He was sitting on the bed, cross legged, looking at his hands while you moved around him pretending he wasn’t there when he finally spoke.   
“You’re not the first person to mention I need spectacles.” He took a deep breath still not looking at you. “My kind shouldn’t need them.”

Oh shit, you had been the biggest of dicks.

“I shouldn’t have been so short with you, I’m sorry.”  
“I’m sorry too, I should have just dropped it. I knew it was upsetting you and I kept pushing.” You moved a little closer hoping that he’d hug you or offer forgiveness back, but not expecting it.

“Oh Sweetness…” Now it was your turn to almost cry as he uncrossed his legs to reach out to you, pulling you to sit in his lap.   
Tucking your face into his neck so he couldn’t see how sad you had been and how that was feeling better you still had the hard pit in your chest, the sick worry that this was still just a game or obligation to him, unable to believe that such perfection could come to you.

“Is this from me?” He murmured at you, fingers trailing over your arm. “Was this my anger that brought you such despair?”  
“You can tell?”  
“Of course I can Princess, you feel so much so deeply, hot anger, dark sadness, rich… Affections.”

Shit.   
You could feel that nugget of pain in your chest expand. He knew, he knew and couldn’t even bring himself to say that he knew all those stupid feelings that you were having for him, sparing you at face value the embarrassment of rejection. 

“I’m sorry.” Lips against your temple he apologized before you felt that same dip in reality like yesterday, only stronger, a sharp rip this time like he was tearing that dark block from out of you. 

You made a pained noise and wriggled, trying to move away from him, feeling strangely dizzy and lightheaded, but he held onto you, digging through your energy and draining it.

Falling a little limp, unable to struggle and barely able to stay awake you could feel him lift you and tuck you into the bed, cuddling next to you mumbling things while you drifted off into an unnatural sleep.

And yet oddly enough you felt no anger or sadness.   
Simply a strange peace and trust.  
And  
Affections.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And then Dan had to get up and vomit because for him sucking out an anxiety filled depressive moment is like drinking sour milk. 
> 
> She's gonna feel fantastic tomorrow, he's gonna feel like he's just escaped death.
> 
> And I? I really need to lay off of writing for a few days.


	11. You're out of bounds

Confusion.

Numb.

Content?

You didn’t know what you were feeling other than “well rested” and maybe “stiff” when you woke up. “Hot” was also certainly a category as you were still fully dressed from the day before and covered with too many blankets and Dan was wrapped around you too close and too warm. 

He grumbled when you untangled your limbs from his but you still had a strange knot of emotion to untangle in yourself before you dealt with him.

Depressive episodes weren’t new to you, usually a good nights sleep, some quiet time, maybe some meditation or medication would be needed but you could dispel them easily once you removed yourself from the trigger for a day or two.  
Dan wasn’t the only one getting a little stressed out.

The difference was he could apparently rip emotions clean out of you and you weren’t sure how you felt about that.  
Weren’t sure if it was because of something he did that you didn’t know how to feel about it or if it was just that your brain didn’t know what to do now that it’s original plan of fucking your week with a dark funk had been foiled. 

“Are you okay?”

It was your turn to look at him from where he had been sitting the day before, only not awash with melancholy but instead… Mistrust.  
Anger?  
Disappointment.

He got no reassuring smile but instead a small frown and you turned back to the window still needing to think.  
You heard him get up, call softly to you, then the sound of him moving off the bed and going into the bathroom.

The anger switched off the instant you heard him retch. 

“Dan?” He coughed and you heard him throw up again the wet sound making you reflexively gag a little. Still covering your mouth you opened the door (he hadn’t gotten around to figuring out the lock yet) willing to offer a backrub or something, needing to know what was wrong.

He’d aimed for the closer bowl and gone for the sink instead of the toilet, making it hard to hide even with the water running that whatever bile he was voiding was black like tar staining the white porcelain.

“Jesus fucking Christ are you okay?”  
Looking up at you he did not look okay. His eyes were usually dark but now they looked sunken in, the black marks you now knew were very delicate scales even more prominent against his ashen grey skin.   
“I’m fine.” He reached out, his arms long enough to reach the door and give it a little push trying to gently force you out. “Don’t worry about it.”  
“Fuck that what the hell is wrong with you? This can’t be normal.”  
“Eehh…” He looked uncomfortable as he answered “It slightly is for me.”  
“What the hell does that mean? Are you… Are you sick?”  
“/I’m/ not.”  
“What does that mean.”  
“It’s nothing, please don’t wor-“  
“No. Fuck you.”

Now he was finally looking at you, hurt all over his face at your anger.  
“You don’t get to pull shit like this, I will not have you getting sick or dying or hurting yourself and not telling me why. Not after the shit you pulled yesterday.”

Not saying anything Dan looked down knowing exactly what you were talking about. 

“You pulled out my anger two days ago. And what did I say after that?”  
He didn’t answer so you moved closer and gave him a little push.  
“What did I say to you after you did that?”  
“Not to do it again.”  
“And the fuck did you do last night? Hey-“ Pushing him again and getting closer so he was forced to look at you. “What did you do last night?”  
“I had to.” He huffed sulking.  
“Oh? Did you now?”  
“Yes! That was my fault. I made your heart sick and I couldn’t just leave you to suffer.”  
“You- Hey look at me, /You/ Don’t get to decide that. Do you hear me?”  
He mumbled making you tip down to get back into his line of sight. “I asked do you hear me?”  
“Yes! Now can you please go I think I need to be ill again.”  
“No. Well, I mean if you think you’re going to throw up again…” You moved out of the way of the sink, stepping to lean against the doorframe. “Now you’re going to tell me why you’re sick.”

He was scowling like a child who had to explain a broken window, mad at being caught and at the punishment he knew was coming.  
It took a few false starts before he found the words to explain.   
“I can’t properly digest despair.”

Silence drifted through the room as you processed exactly what that meant. Dan had taken your sadness from the day before, ripped it out of you like the cancerous tumour it was and was now suffering the consequences of doing so.

“Are you going to be okay?”  
“I will, I just need to let it pass.”  
“Okay.” With that you left him to it, going to lay on the bed, anger still flowing inside of you, but it was more worry and frustration and too many things happening too fast.

He could sense your emotions, read them and pull them out of you and alter them, could he feed them to you as well? Were your affections for him just that? Him pushing feeling at you in order to manipulate you? While he didn’t seem very good at hiding things from you could that just be part of his ploy?

After all one of the first things he taught you, and something you already knew was that demons or fey or whatever otherworldly thing he was couldn’t entirely be trusted.

You were already planning on sending him back. The sweets, the books, all things you were going to send back with him.   
He’d mentioned the work on the house had been done by his kind, hence why it stood up against time and weather, and that it was common for demons to be summoned to do work of this sort if he was correct and the Eiffel tower was constructed with a magical hand then something like your house, solar electricity, a new septic tank if that’s what was needed, wouldn’t be that difficult comparatively. An exchange for the knowledge, maybe some other books on modern technology to create an industrial revolution on his world would be worth one household project on yours.

But now you had a second reason.

You needed some distance between yourself and him. You were now questioning your feelings, was he siphoning off any negative feelings you had without you noticing in order to push you towards liking him more than what you naturally did? It felt weird to have been so accepting of the idea of him being a demon, no fear, no questioning…   
It would explain how ill he was getting, how irritated, that he was hiding ulterior motives behind a suave innocent face in order to manipulate you for his own gain. If he really couldn’t feed off of negative emotions then everything he was taking from you would be making him weak and ill. He couldn’t ply you with sex or cloud your judgement there so he was doing something else.

Something almost worse.

Hot lava cooled into a crust with heat still broiling under the carefully constructed surface as he finally came out of the bathroom looking slightly better but still like death warmed over. 

Standing next to the bed he shuffled uncomfortably, “May I sleep a little longer? I’m very tired.”  
“Do what you want.” It felt a little too cold and you tried to stamp down your angry tongue but it was hard considering how full of bitter you were still, trying to burn away and concern for him that threatened to wash over you.   
You didn’t want to forgive just yet.   
Trading places you got up and he moved around you liked a kicked dog, his tail literally between his legs as he slid into the bed curling up into a ball. 

No matter how upset you couldn’t stand to be intentionally cruel. Placing a hand over his forehead feeling how cool and clammy he was you were still concerned.   
“Do you want anything? Soup or some medicine?”  
“Mint tea would be a kindness.” He responded gently taking your hand and and pressing it against his cheek trying to pull some of your warmth out.  
When he pressed your knuckles to his lips you jerked your hand away, making him flinch like you’d slapped him. 

A part of you wanted to, angry more at the affection that was threatening to kill that anger, mistrustful and upset at it, at him, at yourself.

Without a word you left.

Probably for the best, you might not have been able to keep to your convictions had you seen him start to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heh heh heh heh heh
> 
> *THE EVIL MOUSTACHE IS TWIRLED*


	12. why am I awake it is very late what am I doing to my life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 90% of this is sleep deprivation.

She got him the mint tea he’d asked for and left him to sleep the rest of the day. The few times he woke Dan was sad that she wouldn’t stay with him but dared not to ask, Dan knew that he’d upset her and that trying to fix it would most likely make it worse.

And it was probably the broiling despair in his gut that was also altering his energy making his already developed bout of melancholy even worse that rendered him so fearful of her reaction.

But still he had hope, there was tea, and some crackers, a mug of soup that tasted exceptionally weird in a too watery and yet too salty manner, but he recognized each kindness done as a crack in the hardened shell she was trying to build over her heart. He could hope that under that she still had some care for him.

But how fast humans could change, how fickle they could be, how much they would hide and deny themselves. The courts could be bad when someone was slighted for certain, but humans only had to think someone was trying to attempt a cruelty and all the heavens fury would be brought upon their perceived transgressor. 

For all that he could brush her skin and know the feelings flowing beneath it humans were still profoundly confusing since their feelings often didn’t matter to them and he had no idea what her thoughts were which could easily be completely contrary to her emotions. 

And it was those thoughts that he feared when night fell and she finally returned with the spellbook in her hand.

“We should talk.” He allowed himself some hope sitting up until she kicked him in the chest with “About the ending stipulations of your contract with me.”

“Fine… Let us be done with it.” His voice was dull and tired, he would be glad to return home, or so he was forcing himself to think. “What do you wish for instead of my labour? My usual services are not ones that you wish for so what can I do in exchange? Money? Shall I prostitute myself until you feel you’ve gotten your due?”  
He didn’t want to look at her, scared of what he might see in her face. Would she be insulted? Glad to be rid of him? Sad?

“Truths.”

“What?” His head snapped up and he could read nothing in her face wishing desperately that he could touch her, not just to feel what she was feeling but just to hold her, to make her anger go away and to console himself.

“I hold five hours of your time in hard labour so in exchange for that I want five hard and pure truths from your mouth, no half truths, no avoided details. I want five full, agonizing, untainted, truths to the questions I wish to ask.”

“That is all?” Not that it was a small thing but for her he would carve out his own heart from his chest if she asked for it.

“That is all.” She stuck out her hand, to bind the new contract.

Hardly thinking he placed is palm in hers, eager for the touch but hissing once their hands had grasped, pulling his away shocked at the binding mark on his palm.

She…  
She’d placed upon him a true contract.  
Looking up at her Dan was shocked, their agreement before had been informal, technically non-binding, he could have simply taken her candies and left had he so desired but he had stayed, he’d stayed and delighted in his time here unrestricted and unbound.

His hand felt heavy, or maybe it was just his heart.

Dan was almost glad she wouldn’t look at him, he didn’t really want her to see how hurt he was.

“You…”  
“I’ve been reading and you are now bound. Speak the truth and answer. First question… Why are you sick?”

He sighed. “I drained the bile of your dark emotions out of you, some of my kind can easily feed off of negative emotion, some even prefer it, I do…” He frowned and winced his palm warming in warning. “I cannot handle those emotions. They are like eating ashes to me, no substance, no power, if anything they make me deeply ill.” He stopped, not wanting to say anything more but since his mind had thought of more the binding on his hand was now demanding it, full answers after all.  
“It is a weakness in me that I cannot digest them, that they weaken me instead of strengthen me. It is a shame upon me.”  
He spat the last part hating to admit that he was so weak among his kind.

“Second then, why did you take them if they harm you?”

“Because I knew they were hurting you. Because it was my fault that you were feeling that way.” A tingle to his palm, “Because I don’t want to see you in pain.”

She was quiet, thinking, and he watched her, still afraid.

“Third, can you make me feel things that I wouldn’t naturally feel? For example if I am calm can you use your powers to make me feel enraged?”

He held up his hand, showing the binding and how it didn’t glow or burn, that his words were true, not that he needed to be bound to tell her so.  
“No, my powers come from drawing emotional energy out of you. Your feelings may dull after I have pulled them but the roots of those emotions are still there, water them and they will return, choose to let them wither and they will stay small, but I cannot change or manipulate your emotions any more than any other mortal can. Anything you feel is simply because you feel it.”

Quiet once more, two more questions, two chances to be saved or damned.

“Do you…” She caught herself, reconsidered, looked at him in a way that tore his soul to pieces. “Fourth question… Are you happy?”

That was a very far reaching question.

“Yes.” Pain “No” Still pain “Both yes and no… That is a very non-specific question Lovely, am I happy in general with life? Somewhat, sometimes, on some days. Am I happy here? Yes, mostly although not right now, right now I am a ball of prickly nerves and uncertainty. What do you wish for with this question? Is that what you wish for? Do you want me to be happy?”

“Yes.” She dropped her gaze from his. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for binding you, I’m sorry that I didn’t trust you, I’m sorry I’ve been angry I’m just… I just— I don’t— I-“ She bit her lip and sat in the chair by the window leaning her head onto her hand, covering her eyes. “I don’t want you to hate me.”

Was that all this was? Simply women’s worries?

Dan dropped from from the bed to kneel at her feet and place his head upon her lap hugging her legs.   
“Oh my Queen, my sweet and precious Queen. I am a fool and a cruel knave and I deserve all the torment in the world that I have dared to make you question my devotion. I have been happy here at your side, I have delighted in every moment of your care, the labours and hardships you place on me are as easy as a spring rain simply because I am by your side. I am not here from contract or binding, I have stayed since the moment I saw you simply because I have desired it and that I have hurt you at all? I deserve a thousand years of torment for each tear I may have caused you to shed.”

Turning to look up at her he pushed closer to gather up her face and kiss at her cheeks and eyes, feeling the emotions rolling in her, happiness, relief, sadness, guilt, a drunk heady concoction, bitter and sweet. 

“Oh my Sweet, my Starlight, my Summer’s Day, beat me, burn me, strike me down, I do not deserve such tenderness, ask of me anything and I will give it to you if it can make my wrongs right again.”

“No it’s okay, I was being stupid and I should have just talked to you. Dan I’m sorry, I fucked up too and I’m sorry. I just… This has been really fast for me, it’s been so good and I really like you and I was scared, I was scared that you were just here because I had you bound in a contract to me, that you were using me for gain or that I was just using you because I’m lonely.”

“Oh Sweetness…” Caressing her cheek Dan could understand her feeling perfectly, having felt it himself often enough. 

“But I still… I still feel like I need time to figure myself out.”

Her feelings were there, telling him all was right, but a pox upon the human mind and those cursed thoughts that got in the way.

“I’d like you to go back… Not for long a few days for me to just calm down and figure myself out… And I’d like to ask a favour of you.”  
“Favours are a careful thing to ask.”  
“I know but I want to trust you.”

She did, he could feel it in her, she wanted him to be worthy and he wanted to be as well.

“The books I bought? They’re all about how to create, fix, or build a modern house, with the baths and water and electricity and everything with the technology we now have here. I don’t know what your world is like exactly but some of the information in the right hands could be useful in modernizing your entire world. I want you to take them with you, I want you to choose people you trust, who you think will willingly choose to take a contract with me. I do not want to summon strangers, I do not want to bind your people into unwilling servitude. I will pay them what they feel is fair if I can and wish for them to be free employees under no obligations other than the ones we agree upon. I want them to help me make that house I have livable and then… Then I want you to have a place there if you choose it. A free path to come and go in this world as you would like.”

His heart sang in his chest, she didn’t even know what she was offering, a free pass to come and go from his world to hers? Of his choosing?

Dan wasn’t really of the devious sort, he was smart enough to know worth when he saw it and riches when they were offered. The books would be a small fortune, the contractors who held them would revolutionize his world, the task she asked was a pittance in comparison and if anything simply a lesson in works to come. He could think of a few well deserving folk who would jump to take such a generous contract.

And then…  
Then he would be able to return to her, for as long and as much as he wanted. 

And there was so much he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Un nothing to do with the story but.
> 
> Listening to "Before the grumps" (Slowly and in pieces) Ross and Brian sound so very much like NPR I want them to start a radio show where they just sleepily talk about jazz. I mean it would put me to sleep so damn fast but y'know. That'd also be awesome.
> 
> Poor Barry, although damn he's travelled a lot, I hope he gets to keep getting around the globe.
> 
> completely unrelated to that I was also thinking about the video 6969 and like how there's been a lot of kind of sad fanfic's out there in regards to it.  
> And I can understand why, like take away even a smattering of the silly and it's not a happy story, not even the ending is because revolution is so rarely clean cut.  
> But the happy ending I put forth here is.  
> And this is nothing on Dan the person but Danny Sexbang the character. His life isn't real. Like I don't mean that as a "Oh he's fictional his life isn't real" but as in "Everything in cannon that he has ever said or claimed has pretty much been a lie to impress some girl who tends not to be impressed."  
> From the Golden Chalice to Dragonslayer he says a LOT of crap that tends not to be true to be impressive, every hint of a real or decent relationship he's ever had has ended poorly due to him so my mental happy ending to 6969 is basically that it's not true, it's an epic yarn from his imagination to probably impress some girl named Kristin from now to be all "Oh I fucked a girl named Kristin who was the love of my life in the future to save the world! We should re-enact that!" and then he gets slapped and calls after her "I'll take that as a maybe? Call me!"
> 
> Like I'd write this shit as a fic but I have WAYYYYYY too much on my plate right now so y'know, putting it here.


	13. Not the end

A token, a kiss, a promise.

Your heart.

The things you gave to him before he stepped back into that circle drawn with such care in the house in the room that time wouldn’t touch and disappeared.

You waited a day, and a second.

A week later you went home, after all he said with your token he’d be able to return to you wherever you were.

A week after that you were in tears, a day of crying, a day of rest, a day of melancholy reflection.

Was any of it even true? Had he even existed? Had he liked you? Was anything he said true? Did he take the gifts you’d given and just go home? A demonic equivalent of taking the money and running?

A day at home where you mother could see your heartbreak and pulled out of you half of the tale with ease. A helpful man, what you thought was a bond, a death of communication now that he was gone.

He was a singer, worked in entertainment, you’d lied with a practiced tongue. After all you weren’t out to her about being asexual and you probably never would be. Everything your family knew about your life, especially when it came to your love life, was a combination of lies and truth that tended to be mostly lies.

The truth in this tale was that he was gone, that you weren’t sure he wanted to come back, that you were sad.   
The lies were everything else about him.

It was a very conscious effort not to spiral into a full depression, you’d suffered heartbreak before and maybe not this hard but you wouldn’t wallow in it. 

Returning to the small town a month and some change later you started to go through the storage locker, getting the help of a local woman and her husband to go through the antiques with you, their wages being a fair price for whatever they wanted of value.

“Woah check this out. What a wild book.” Suzy held up the origin of your heartbreak, the stupid spellbook that had introduced Dan to you. “Betcha you could get a good price for this from a collector. It looks like it’s in good condition.”

Sell it to someone? Have someone else summon Dan into the world? 

Taking it from her you flipped to the page with the lemon tarts on it, the place kept by your rewrite of the recipe. 

Not for sale, never for sale.

Let that heartbreak be for you alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's the end of this Arc of the story and I could be mean and say there's no more to come but that would be a lie I've got fragments of plot of one more arc that is a lot sadder and a lot smuttier.  
> I think writing Closer is also spurning me on to make it a little darker too.
> 
> There's a somewhat third arc I'm debating, not sure where I want to go with this so I am open to suggestions of where y'all would like to see this story go. I love world building and character development so gimmie gimmie any excuse to write that shit.
> 
> Gonna try to finish Closer, Dogrun, and Black Hole Sun before I start on the next arc here so cheer me on for those since as you can see I am fuelled by comments.


	14. This is not really a chapter.

Hey guys.  
Remember how I revamped "The Long Dark" with an overhaul and re-write resulting in a 3 part series and finally finishing it to like a nice completed ending.

Guess what series I'm doing next.

-Switching everything to first person POV because I'm really starting to prefer writing that way.  
-Chapters 1 & 2 edited to add a little and shift things ever so slightly.

If you see anything that needs to be corrected or have something to suggest now is the time since I'm overhauling this sucker.


End file.
